Once More
by ItsHardToFindAPenName
Summary: The Fourth Shinobi World War was over, and Naruto was finally captured by Madara. But is hope truly gone? And what the heck is happening to the Gedo Mazo? Join our favourite blond hero and the nine Tailed Beasts on their great journey to the past!
1. Chapter 1: Back to the Past

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto, or anything publicly recognizable. **

* * *

**Chapter 1: Back to the Past**

Everything was dark.

He had failed.

Things were not supposed to become like this. All his training, his friendship with Kurama and all other Tailed Beasts, all the efforts of himself and the whole Shinobi Alliance… They were supposed to win, they were meant to go on, to defeat the mad Uchiha duo and to stop the Juubi from destroying the world!

But yet, despite all those things, they still lost.

Madara Uchiha had won. All of their efforts were wasted. All his friends, all who cared for him were murdered by the wicked power of that revived bastard. And Madara was only short of one more thing to complete the Juubi again and become what he had deceived the poor Obito for a very long time in order to achieve – a god.

Yes, Kurama was still inside Naruto. But not for long. Soon, his newest friend would be ripped off from his body and become a part of that monster Shinju again.

Everything of the few last hours flashed through his mind.

He remembered Kakashi's Sharingan being ripped off his left eye socket as he fell and died under Madara's Susanoo sword. He remembered the souls of the four revived Hokage being pulled away by the shadow clones with Rinnegan. He remembered Hinata and Sakura being impaled by an incredibly sharp root when trying to pull him out of the roots that were restraining him and sucking away his chakra. He remembered Sasuke's Susanoo being shattered and the man himself being vaporized when trying to prevent a combined Tailed Beast Bomb from the Sharingan-controlled Tailed Beasts from hitting a completely exhausted Naruto sprawling on the ground.

Everyone… they sacrificed their lives to protect him, to allow him the chance to destroy Madara once and for all… And he failed them.

He closed his eyes. Maybe if he had just given up from the beginning… this wouldn't have happened…

**"So you decided to just give up like that? It's not like you, Naruto."**

He opened his eyes again. He was in the white room from before, and Kurama and all other Tailed Beasts were standing before him, looking down at him. Normally, he would have asked how they were able to meet again, but right now, it was not important anymore. Nothing was important anymore.

"Why shouldn't I give up? Everyone is gone, Madara has captured all of you. We lost." Naruto sighed heavily, all his energy seemed to be drained.

He was flicked in the forehead by a tentacle of Gyuki.

**"Idiot. We haven't lost yet. Everyone out there is still fighting. Everyone sacrificed their lives because they believe that you shall be able to defeat Madara, not for you to sulk and give up like this. If you, Naruto, of all people, lose hope, there is nothing we can do anymore."**

"But what can I do now? All my friends are gone, the Shinobi Alliance is, or is being destroyed. I don't know what I'm fighting for anymore". With those last words, Naruto collapsed on his knees, and for the first time in many years, he cried. All of his anger, sorrow, regret, despair and pain, everything he held in his heart seemed to have exploded and added to the stream of tears.

**"You know," **Surprisingly, it was Shukaku who raised the voice. It was different from the way Naruto had known the beast for; it was… sane. **"I don't quite understand much about you humans, but to me, if you hate someone, even if I cannot defeat him, I would try my best to make sure that whatever he was planning won't be able to work. I don't like you quite much, but I admired you for daring to stand up against me during that battle in the past. If I hadn't, I would have made Gaara destroy your little village when he finally became Kazekage."**

**"Nice idea, Shuki-chan!" **Chomei chirped in. Even in this situation, the beetle could still keep her cheerful personality. Shukaku shot her a glare of annoyance at the nickname.

"But how can I do it? Madara must have begun Kurama's extraction for quite some time. Now I cannot even move."

Son Goku's eyes gleamed. **"You know that you are not alone in this, right?"**

* * *

"The extraction is nearly completed. Soon, the Juubi, and this world shall be mine to control!" Madara's Rinnegan flashed hungrily when the red chakra of Kurama continuously flown into the mouth of Gedo Mazo. Just a little more time, and his dream shall become true…

Suddenly, the statue, and the ground started to rumble.

"What… What the…" Madara startled, his concentration on the sealing technique faltered. "What's happening?"

Cracks started to appear on the body of the Juubi. From within, lights and chakra could be seen flowing out.

"No… This… This is not supposed to happen…" Madara cried desperately, pumping more of his chakra into the sealing jutsu, but all was in vain; loud booming started to rise from inside the statue, and all of Gedo Mazo's eyes snapped open and it screeched as if it was in excruciating pain.

"Oh shi…"

Then everything went white.

* * *

If there's something Naruto hated so much, it was being woken up suddenly in the middle of the night on an extremely uncomfortable bed.

His whole body was throbbing with pain. That nightmare was too incredibly real. And it's also strange and horrible, too. He could still remember quite clearly about his friends dying, his failure at beating Madara, the Tailed Beasts talking to him and a huge explosion…

He groaned and burrowed his face deeper into the pillow. He didn't want to remind himself about that terrible dream anymore.

…Except there was no pillow at all. He was lying on a pile of straw in a shack, standing in the middle of what seemed to be the forest outside of Konoha. And in his arms was a big papery cylinder thing.

"WHAT THE?" Naruto screamed and jumped out of the makeshift bed he was lying on. Then he realized. "What the hell is wrong with my voice?"

His voice was now exactly what it was when he was twelve.

"Well," he muttered. "Kurama had better have a good explanation for this…"

* * *

"Hey Kurama! What the heck is going on… here…"

Naruto sweatdropped as his eyes stared at the bizarre scene in his mindscape.

Inside the cage was a clusterfuck. As he could count, there were nine heads and a whole bunch of tails… tentacles… goo… wings… whatever... And they seemed to be struggling hard against each other.

**"Hey! Stop pulling my tails!"**

**"Get your tentacles off my butt you perverted ox!"**

**"Ack! Your tail! Your tail! You're strangling me!"**

**"My wings! You're crushing my wings!"**

**"So heavy…"**

If this hadn't been an urgent situation, this would have been a very funny scene.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE? WHY ARE YOU GUYS ALL INSIDE OF ME? AND WHERE ARE WE ANYWAY?" After a while, Naruto had enough. He exploded.

His voice drew the attention of the creatures behind the bars.

**"Ah, Naruto!" **The fox head cried out in relief.** "A little help here, please?"**

Naruto's left eyebrow twitched. "Couldn't you just, like, shrink yourself, or transform into something smaller and easier to get out?"

**"Ah,"** all the heads nodded slowly. **"Good point."**

* * *

After some more struggles, and a huge puff of smoke, Naruto was now sitting on the damp floor of his mindscape, facing all nine Tailed Beasts who were each in the size of a grown up Akamaru.

"So… care to explain?" Naruto looked at the beasts inside the cage.

**"Well… um… it's just a little accident, you see…"** Kurama started.

"What do you mean 'a little accident'?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow.

**"Well, you see,"** Kokuoh, the Five-Tails, began. **"You remember that we left quite a lot of our chakra inside you when we bumped our fists, right? Turns out that the more powerful we are, the stronger the chains binding us inside the Juubi's body are. Therefore, when we were absorbed back into that statue, those chains became significantly weaker, and a normal Tailed Beast Bomb was enough to break us free from the binding."**

"I see," Naruto nodded in understanding. "But that doesn't explain why…"

**"I was getting there,"** the Five-Tails stopped him. **"After that we were able to talk with you again, remember? Then, that knucklehead over there,"** he pointed one of his tails towards Goku, who scratched his head sheepishly, **"decided to break us free with another combined Tailed Beast Bomb. I told them it would be dangerous, but sadly, no one listened – except for me and little Saikyo here,"** he rubbed the Six-Tails' head with another tail. **"So we did it anyway, and the Juubi's body was completely obliterated."**

"So the Juubi's body was destroyed," Naruto nodded again. "That's good, right?"

**"Yes… but, well…"** Kokuoh suddenly hesitated. **"You know that the Juubi was the God Tree, the source of all chakra in the world, right? When it was destroyed, all the chakra from inside it exploded in an instant with an extremely powerful force, and it somehow ripped us from that timeline and sent us back to the past. And it also pushed us into the seal in your stomach."**

"Ooh! So that's why I have my twelve-year-old voice, and why I was holding the Forbidden Scroll out there! We were sent back to the day I graduated from the Academy!" Naruto exclaimed in realization. But then, something crossed his mind. "But what about the others? Did they get sent back to the past, too?"

The Tailed Beasts shared a worried and regretful look.

**"Naruto,"** Gyuki said. **"A blast with enough power to send one back to the past will reduce everything to light particles. Not even Madara's strongest Susanoo could survive that explosion. It is incredibly lucky that you have us; otherwise you would have been erased from existence together with Madara and everything else. About the others… I'm afraid there's nothing you can do for them anymore, Naruto."**

Naruto's shoulders slumped. So in the end, it was nothing different. He still couldn't save anyone. He couldn't do anything to protect the people he loved. Tears started to well up in his eyes again, rolling down his cheeks and silently dropping into the already soaking ground.

Then he felt something warm and fluffy wrapping around him. He raised his head, and saw Kurama embracing him with her red tails.

**"It's true Naruto, that you have failed them. But think, if you really feel that bad about it, then this is your chance to redeem yourself. We're in the past, when everything hadn't happened yet. Work hard, and stop Madara from completing his plan in this timeline. Protect everyone you love this time; don't let them die meaninglessly like before. Besides," **she added with a chuckle,** "look around you. This time you are not alone. You have us together with you now, and we are friends. Friends are supposed to help each other, right?"**

**"Right! This time we're with you, Naru-kun! That Madara guy will not be able to ruin the future we create together anymore!" **Chomei added cheerily.

Naruto looked at all the beasts around him, his eyes widened. Everyone of them was looking back at him with trusting and encouraging eyes (Well, except for Saikyo and Chomei; they don't have eyes anyway). A feeling of warmth suddenly bloomed in his heart, and he felt happy, and stronger than ever. He smiled, wiping tears away from his eyes and stood up.

"Thank you everyone. This time, I swear I will not fail!" He raised his hand, and they bumped their fists again, strengthening the bond between them once more.

**"Good job my dear. Now go,"** Kurama pushed her jinchuriki's back. **"There is one person who needs to be saved by you right now."**

When Naruto faded away from their view, Matatabi looked at Kurama.

**"I can't believe even you can become motherly, nee-san."**

**"Heh," **the vixen chuckled. **"Even I can't believe it myself, either."**

* * *

Mizuki was smirking. Right after he finished this annoyance of an Academy teacher, he would go find the demon brat, take the Forbidden Scroll from him and bring him together with it to Orochimaru-sama. Then he would become a Sound ninja, and gain the power and fame he couldn't get being a mere teacher in Konoha!

His train of thought was interrupted rudely when a foot landed on his face, sending him crashing into a tree nearby.

"I'll kill you for hurting Iruka-sensei! Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Mizuki's eyes widened in horror when the forest was filled, literally, with thousands of Naruto.

"Now, ready to die, bastard?" The army of Naruto grinned wickedly while cracking their knuckles. Mizuki gulped.

"I'm screwed, am I?"

"Yes." The whole army echoed before pummeling the poor traitor to the ground.

* * *

Iruka was appalled seeing Naruto performed a forbidden Ninjutsu in such a large scale. Not only that, the boy didn't even show any sign of fatigue after releasing the jutsu! And he defeated a Chuunin-level shinobi just by himself!

He smiled weakly. _'You have really become strong, Naruto… You might even surpass the Third, no, __**all**__ the past Hokages someday… '_

"Heh heh… Guess I might have overdone it a bit…" Naruto grinned sheepishly, while dragging a mess of flesh and bones called Mizuki along towards Iruka. The older man smiled, and waved him.

"Leave that Naruto. Come here and close your eyes."

This was it. This was the time. Naruto could not ever forget this, even until the last day of his life…

"Congratulation, Naruto. You're officially a Genin of Konohagakure."

Once again in two days (or who knows how many days had passed), Naruto began to cry his heart out, this time on the chest of the older man.

* * *

**And that's for chapter 1. This is my first story, and I wanted to see how well it was received.**

**You see, I changed the gender of Saiken, and gave her the name Saikyo. Saikyo, as far as I know, means 'the strongest' in Japanese. And I have a reason for giving her that name. It will be explained in a chapter in the future.**

**And Kurama was extremely OOC. Yeah, I know. But hey, this is fanfiction, right?**

**How was the story so far? If you like it, please let me know :D**


	2. Chapter 2: Back to the Start

**Chapter 2**: **Back to the Start**

"Wow, this photo was quite… good, actually. I almost didn't recognize you in that new outfit."

"Heh, I had to retake it a few times, jiji." Naruto answered the old Hokage with a foxy grin.

He was standing in Konoha's Shinobi Registration Room with Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, and his secretary, after taking the photos for his ID registration. The old man was smiling at him, while stamping the document which contained his CV and the photo.

**_'See Naruto-kun, I told you changing your clothes would be a good thing for you.'_**

_'Yeah yeah, I know. But I still don't like very much. It doesn't have much orange on it, Mata-chan.'_

His face twisted oddly when the two-tailed cat blew a raspberry at him in his mind.

His new attire included a dark blue pair of trousers with orange flame-like stripes at the tip of the cuffs, a pair of fingerless gloves together with two medium-sized steel bangles, and a black sleeveless shirt which hugged tightly around his chest and torso, showing off his rather well-built body. His headband was tied firmly on his forehead.

Naruto didn't notice it, but all the training he had done in the past actually did make his body a sight of attraction to any girls who saw it. Which was none, because he always hid it under the bizarre orange jumpsuit.

**_'That explains why only the Hyuuga girl showed interest in you. X-ray eyes and everything.'_**

_'Aw, shut up.'_

It's all thanks to Matatabi when he first figured out the way to make the beasts appeared out of his body.

* * *

_(Two days ago)_

"You know what, this is kind of boring for you guys, right? My imagination was not quite good, anyway…"

Naruto said while standing together with Kurama in his new mindscape. The dark and dirty sewer ("Ew, is my mind really that dirty?") was gone, replaced by an endless lushful green meadow with a river running across, a range of mountains at the horizon, blue sky with the sun shining brightly, and standing in the middle was a sakura tree which was as big as the Hokage monument. Kurama sighed.

**"This is quite alright. It's much better than staying in that sewer. You know, never before have I got a jinchuriki who bothered to do this for me. I appreciate it."**

She scratched the seal on her neck, which now formed a leather collar with the kanji of "seal" written on it. **"Although it might be better if this was a necklace or something…"**

Naruto looked at the vixen and smiled. After receiving her Yin half back from his father, the fox seemed to mellow out quite a lot.

"Well, but I don't want to leave you guys in here all the time!" he insisted, then pouted. "If only I could do something to let you guys out there for a while…"

**"I think you can, onii-chan."**

The two turned back to see Saikyo standing (well, crawling? Whatever) behind them. The slug seemed to blush a bit when Kurama and Naruto's eyes stared at her.

**"Um… when I was with Utakata-nii-chan, he used this jutsu to bring me out there for a walk, sometimes…"**

"Really? But do you know how to do it, Saikyo?"

**"Well… he just crossed his fingers, and my soul and some of my chakra were pulled out… and I'm outside."**

"Hmm? Cross fingers? Where have I heard it before…"

Naruto's eyes suddenly widened in realization.

"It is the Shadow Clone Jutsu! But…" his eyes squinted, "how can the Shadow Clone Jutsu get you out?"

**"Because the Shadow Clone contains a part of its creator's soul when it is created."**

Naruto jumped. He didn't realized Kokuoh standing next to him since who knew.

**"You see," **Kokuoh explained, **"unlike a normal Clone Jutsu, a shinobi cannot perform tangible Clone Jutsu without some kind of blueprint and catalyst as a base. In the Shadow Clone's case, a part of your own soul is both the blueprint and the catalyst. That part of your soul stays in the clone as it exists, and returns to you when the clone disappears. That's the reason why the clone has a personality, which is yours, takes the form of yourself, and returns its memories and experiences to you when it disperses. Therefore, instead of your soul, if you use another soul and chakra to perform the technique, such as ours, you will be able to send us out as Shadow Clones, and it takes whatever forms we want it to be."**

He stopped, seeing the long face of Naruto.

**"You didn't understand anything, did you?"**

Naruto nodded dumbly. The five-tailed horse facepalmed.

**"Next time, try to simplify your speech," **Kurama chimed in. **"Naruto cannot understand anything longer than fifty words."**

Naruto pouted. "That's so mean…"

* * *

"Tailed Beast Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Smoke filled the entire room, then dispersed, revealing nine figures standing in front of Naruto. But they were not the Tailed Beasts. At least, not anymore.

Instead, there were five girls and four guys. And they looked **definitely **human to Naruto.

Isobu, Chomei and Matatabi simply chose a form that looked similar to their ex-jinchuriki, albeit with some distinctive features. Isobu's eyes, instead of a blank purple like Yagura's, were brown and spirited, his gray hair was spiky similar to the head of his beast form, and there was no scar on his face. Chomei's hair, instead of mint green like Fu's, had a brilliant saffron shade with some red streak and a pony tail. And Matatabi looked like a twin of Yugito, except for her bright blue hair and a rounder chin.

However, Naruto almost facepalmed when he saw the other Tailed Beasts in their human forms.

Shukaku took the form of a teenage girl with tomboyish sandy hair tied into a ponytail on the back of her head. She wore a sleeveless white top which looked suspiciously like a sport bra, showing off her bare midriff and navel, and a very provoking pair of jeans which couldn't hide anything, just enough to cup her round ass and not make it look like a pair of panties. But with her rather… flat chest, the cute big yellow eyes and the constant scowl on her face which looked suspiciously like a pout, she looked just like a little girl who was trying in vain to become sexy.

Son Goku's form looked like it was ripped off from a certain shounen martial art manga. His hair had the same shade of red as his fur in beast form, but so spiky it seemed to be at the level of impossible. His body was tall and muscular, and he wore a sleeveless orange-and-blue set of martial art gi, showing off his well-built arms, with a blue belt and a pair of boots. But the weirdest thing in his body was a tail behind his butt instead of four, which wrapped around his waist like a furry belt.

Kokuoh's was a middle-aged man with white short hair spiked at the back similar to his horns in his beast form. His outfit was simple: a gray jacket and a pair of khaki trousers, together with a pair of sandals, which looked kind of weird for a know-it-all like him. The truth was, Naruto couldn't look at him without imagining him in a blue suit with a red tie on his neck.

Saikyo appeared in the form of a young girl. Being a slug in beast form, she let her snowy white, ground-touching long hair drop down her forehead as a straight bang, partly hiding her ruby red eyes from view. Her white dress and purple long-sleeved shirt made her already pale skin even paler. She exuded a regal and ladylike aura. It's cute, but somewhat… scary. It's just like she was an eighteen-year-old woman stuffed into the body of a child. And she called him onii-chan. Naruto almost shuddered at the thought.

Gyuki, surprisingly, was the most… normal. He became a tan and bald man with a black, short beard that screamed "badass" and a muscular body that could not be mistaken from a professional wrestling champion. He wore a black sleeveless tight shirt and a pair of black jeans with a pair of sunglasses. On his right arm, extended from his shoulder, was a strange tattoo that looked like a complex sealing array of some sort. Whether that or maybe it's just for decoration, Naruto didn't know.

Finally, Kurama donned the form of a beautiful woman with short pink hair tied into a big ponytail by a blue ribbon behind her head. She wore a sleeve-detached blue-and-black traditional yukata-like dress with no neck and only two pieces of blue cloth covering her front and behind, revealing her white thighs and her rather bountiful cleavage. Her long, smooth legs were hidden under a pair of long blue stocking. And a pair of orange fox ears and a fluffy tail sprouted out of her head and butt.

_Note to self, _Naruto thought, _half of the Tailed Beasts are otaku freaks._

"Wow, it worked better than I thought," Kurama said, rubbing her newly acquired D-cup breasts, giving poor Isobu a nose bleed and a slap on the back of his head by Matatabi.

"So cute!" Chomei squeed like a fangirl, and squeezed Kurama in a crushing glomp, making the foxgirl flailing her arms hysterically. "Ack! Ack! Can't… breathe…"

"Yeah, yeah, that's cute," Matatabi sighed, reaching out her hand to pry Kurama out of Chomei's crushing grip, "but you can't go outside looking like this, nee-san."

"But this looks good on me!" Kurama protested.

"Yeah, yeah, but the ears and tail," the cat girl pointed out while facepalming. Kurama pouted (making Naruto shuddered), snapped her fingers, and the fox ears and tail disappeared.

"By the way Naruto-kun," Matatabi continued. "I won't let you go anywhere with those silly orange clothes on your body." She wagged a finger at him, while her other hand planted firmly on her hip.

Naruto pouted. "But I like orange."

"That will have to change too! I'll not allow my jinchuriki to wear such hideous clothes as long as I'm here!" the cat-turned-human glared at him, not noticing Goku shouting "Hey! Don't diss the orange!" at her back.

"Well, too bad," Naruto shrugged. "It's not like I have any other clothes, anyway."

Matatabi's eyes gleamed dangerously.

Naruto suddenly felt scared. He noticed a similar gleam in Shukaku's, Kurama's, Chomei's and Saikyo's eyes.

"Wh… what…?"

* * *

And that's the reason why Naruto was standing in front of the Third Hokage right now, wearing new outfits that made him almost unrecognizable in the eyes of people who used to know him. He could swear he heard Gama-chan in his pocket crying because of her emptiness.

The first time Naruto saw Sarutobi, he had had to do his best to refrain himself from jumping him and giving him a bone-crushing hug. The man was like a real grandfather to him. He had been the only person in the village, besides Iruka-sensei, Teuchi and Ayame, who hadn't thought of him as a demon and a failure when he was young. And he was the first one to die protecting the village in Naruto's life. The last time Naruto saw him, the old Hokage was a corpse revived by Orochimaru, and he had to watch his soul being ripped off his body right in front of him, without being able to do anything to help. Despite being able to restrain his body, he couldn't help shedding a drop of tears.

"Here Naruto, your registration is completed. Remember to go to your classroom at 8 am tomorrow to hear your team selection, alright?" The Hokage gave Naruto his stamped registration with a smile. He grinned back, and nodded.

Speaking of team selection… It should be right…

"OLD MAN! FIGHT ME! THE HOKAGE SEAT IS MINE TODAY!"

…now.

Konohamaru jumped into the room, shuriken on his hand, and tripped on his scarf.

_'Just like old time…' _Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Ow! That hurt!" Konohamaru whined, while rubbing his bruised forehead. Then he noticed Naruto.

"Hey! You tripped me, didn't you?"

Naruto's left eyebrow twitched.

"You tripped on your own, idiot." He deadpanned.

"Hey! No one talk to me like that!" With that, Konohamaru jumped at Naruto, intending to punch him in the face. But Naruto easily sidestepped the boy, then grabbed his outstretched arm and twisted it to his back.

Right on cue, the teacher of Konohamaru, Ebisu, jumped into the room.

"Hey, let go of him, brat! He is Hokage-sama's grandson!"

Konohamaru glared at Naruto. _Now that he knows who I am, he can't do anything to me… Pfff, he's just the same as everyone…_

But that only made Naruto's eyebrow twitch harder.

"You think I give a damn, moron?!"

CRUNCH

Even after all those year, he still found the whole "Hokage-sama's grandson" thing annoying.

* * *

Naruto held out his right hand, and tried to make a Rasengan. It's worth mentioning that, before the Fourth Shinobi World War, he had finally managed to complete the jutsu, and now he could do it with one hand, just like Jiraiya and his father.

The chakra spun around his palm, focused, and exploded on his face.

"Aaaaarrrrgh!" Naruto screamed when his body was thrown away like a ragdoll and slammed into a tree nearby. "Damn it, what's happening?"

**_'This is gonna be a problem. Hey, Naruto, try to make it with a Shadow Clone like you used to do before.' _**From inside his head, Kurama suggested worriedly. Naruto nodded, and made a Shadow Clone. He started to focus his chakra into his palm, while the clone spun it. It exploded even more violently, sending him and the clone crashing into the tree again.

**_'Oh dear.'_**

_'Kurama! What's happening to me?' _Naruto asked in panic.

**_'I'm sorry Naruto. Your chakra control was completely ruined.' _**The vixen sighed, and Naruto's face twisted into a horror gape.

"What?! How?! WHY!?"he screamed to the sky, scaring a flock of pigeons hiding in a bush nearby, and a certain little boy who was hiding behind a large tree. ("I'm not here!") _'Crap, I said that out loud, didn't I?' _The vixen in his head rolled her eyes, and started to explain.

**_'Naruto, you remember that when you graduated, your chakra control was abysmal, right? Well, I think when we're thrown back to the past, your body was also reverted back to that state. Plus,' _**she added, after a brief thought, **_'now you contain not only me, but all nine of us Tailed Beasts. That means your reserves should be, say, at least nine times larger than you had in the… well, our past. Truth is, I'm surprised that your body didn't explode because of chakra overload.' _**

**_'Must be an Uzumaki thing, I guess,' _**Kokuoh suggested. **_'I heard that the Uzumaki clan was famous for their incredible stamina and life force. Besides, it's not like no one has ever contained all of us before. Did you forget Otou-san?'_**

_'But that means all my skills are down the toilet!'_ Naruto wailed mentally. _'And the bell test of Kakashi-sensei is in two days! What do I do?'_ Anime tears started to pour out of his eyes like two small streams.

**_'Then start training you idiot!' _**Kurama chided him. **_'Don't you realize that you're wasting your time crying? Oh, and someone has been following you for almost an hour.'_**

"Ah, I forgot. Stop hiding and come out here, Konohamaru."

From behind the great tree, the grandson of the Third peeked out.

"As expecting of my Boss! You noticed me right away!" he exclaimed, jumping out of his hiding spot.

"What are you doing here, Konohamaru?" Naruto asked. "Didn't you go back with that Ebisu guy?"

"Nuh-uh! He sucked! You're way cooler than him, Boss!" Konohamaru shook his head. "Hey Boss! Please teach me that Sexy Jutsu you used to defeat the old man!"

Naruto had heard this request before. This time, he couldn't help but broke into laughter.

"Why do you want to learn it? It's just a joke, you know. Honestly, I didn't think the old man was such a pervert," Naruto said after finally calming himself down.

"It doesn't matter! I need to learn it to defeat him!" Konohamaru shouted. "Then I'll become Hokage! If I can do that, everyone will acknowledge me…"

The boy's rant was stopped by Naruto's fingers poking his forehead.

"Idiot. If being Hokage was that easy, everyone would be Hokage. The Hokage hat only belongs to the best shinobi. You don't become Hokage for people to acknowledge you; you become Hokage _because _people acknowledge you! So," he flashed a smile which looked disturbingly similar to that of a certain Green Beast of Konoha, "work hard, and gain everyone's respect first!"

"But that will take too long!" Konohamaru protested. "Besides, Ebisu-sensei didn't teach me anything good!"

"Then you can train with me!" Naruto grinned. "You think there is a shortcut to becoming Hokage? If you want to become one, you have to train your ass out, just like me! Now let's get to training, we don't have all day! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Konohamaru's eyes widened when a dozen of Narutos appeared on the training field. Then he grinned.

"Yosh! I'm not gonna lose to you, Boss!"

* * *

"Hey Boss! I finally made it to the branch! Heeheehee"

"Damn it! Even Konohamaru is better than me now!"

BAM! CRASH! CRASH!

"Damn! I still can't get it!" Naruto climbed out of the hole he had made when drilling his face on the dirt after blasting off his tree again. Konohamaru, who was now already on a pretty high branch, laughed.

"Hahaha! I beat you, Boss!"

"Just you wait, brat!" Naruto yelled back. "I'll catch up to you right now!"

* * *

Unknown to the two spirited boys, two pairs of eyes were watching them from afar, at the other side of the training ground.

"Wha… Wha… Wha…" That's Ebisu, who was gaping like an idiot as Naruto was teaching Konohamaru better than he could ever did.

"It's OK, Ebisu. Even I can't believe it, either." And that's the Third Hokage, who was patting the poor Special Jounin's shoulder while frowning.

_There is really something very wrong with Naruto today…_

* * *

**And that brings you to the end of Chapter 2.**

**First of all, I would like to thank my readers for the positive reviews of the first chapter. To be honest, I didn't expect my first story to be so well accepted. English is not my first language, so, well, there might be a few mistakes in wording and grammar. **

**Then with the story. In my story, Naruto will become very powerful. Seriously, he is, basically, post-Shippuden Naruto being stuffed inside his 11-year-old body. And how in the world can someone with all nine Bijuu sealed inside his body, with the mindset and experiences of an adult _not _be powerful? But I can assure you, he will not be powerful right at the moment, and it will not be without a cost. Naruto will have to train his ass off not only to gain his old skills back, but also to learn new abilities that his new tenants grant him. So if someone expects Naruto to curbstomp Akatsuki or Madara right away, I'm sorry to disappoint you.**

**Oh, and kudos for anyone who guesses correctly the characters I based Shukaku, Son Goku, Kokuoh, Saikyo, Gyuki and Kurama on :3.**

**See you in the next chapter! **


	3. Chapter 3: Team 7 Again

**Chapter 3: Team 7… Again**

"Hey… Is that… Naruto?"

"No way! When did he become so hot?"

"He looks even better than Sasuke!"

"Pfff! There's no way he could be cooler than Sasuke-kun!... Right?"

Naruto groaned, and slammed his head on the table. _'It's all your fault, Mata-chan! Now I'm going to have fangirls!'_

**_'You have just overestimated yourself there, dude,'_** Gyuki chuckled.

**_'Ugh… fangirls…' _**Naruto could feel Isobu shudder in his mind. **_'They're a nightmare. Remind me of the time Yagura became Mizukage…'_**

_'What? __**Yagura **__had fangirls?' _

**_'Duh! You think he's always the homicidal maniac who wants to destroy bloodlines? Before Madara got a grip on him, he was quite a popular boy. Genius, handsome… Just like the duck-ass over there.'_**

Naruto was in his classroom, waiting for the team assignment. It had been too long since he last sat in this room. Everything was still the same, from the board, the tables to his classmates…

This time, he carefully chose a seat far away from Sasuke. He did not want to experience his "first kiss" once more.

**_'But you liked it~!' _**Kurama sang inside his head. Naruto gagged mentally.

_'Urk! That's disgusting, Kurama! I told you to never remind me of that again!'_

But there was no way his tenants would leave him alone with that.

**_'Ooh, ooh! I almost forgot about this! Is he a good kisser?' _**Chomei chimed in, obviously interested, much to Naruto's horror.

**_'Oh, you don't even know anything…' _**Kurama grinned evilly.

_'Damn you, Kurama!' _Naruto shouted in his mind, while his face reddened in the real world. The five girls in his head giggled.

**_'Sigh… Girls are so troublesome…' _**Goku drawled, and then yelped as Matatabi bonked him on his head.

Speaking of Sasuke…

The boy was sitting at the desk five row down from his, in his "emo mode", as Naruto preferred to call. Looking at him, Naruto's stomach felt twisted up. The images of Sasuke's defect, the battle at the Valley of the End, their meeting at Orochimaru's hideout, the battle at the Samurai Bridge, Sasuke sacrificing himself to protect him from Madara… everything rushed back into his head like a tsunami, and he had to try his best to stop himself from collapsing and bawling like a baby again.

_This time, I won't let that happen. Believe it._

Sasuke seemed to notice Naruto staring at him. He scoffed, and turned away.

The mood was ruined immediately.

_'Hmph! Ungrateful bastard…' _Naruto huffed in his mind, which earned a giggle from the girls inside his head.

Loud stomping noises started to rise from the corridor outside. It must be Sakura and Ino, battling for the seat next to Sasuke… again.

_Three… two… one…_

CRASH!

_… and there they are._

"Ha! I win, pig!" Sakura declared triumphantly, laughing at Ino who was gasping for breath next to her. Both their hair were tattered and their clothes were messed up, maybe because of the catfight when they were in the corridor. But when Sakura saw Sasuke…

"SASUKE-KUN!"

…her hair and clothes went back to their perfect condition in a blink, and she screamed like a banshee.

_'And how did she do that again?'_

**_'Who knows? Maybe some kind of genjutsu, or even magic.'_**

Well, at least this time he didn't receive any of Sakura's monstrous punches, or any kiss from Sasuke.

* * *

"First of all, I want to congratulate you all for passing the graduation exam." Iruka started. "From now on, all of you are shinobi of the Hidden Leaves Village."

A loud round of applause rose up from the students.

"However," Iruka continued, "you are still only 'genin', which is the lowest class of shinobi in the village. You have to perform duties for the village, gather experiences and skills in order to be promoted to higher ranks. So today, you will be assigned into 3-man teams, and each team will have a Jounin sensei. You will follow that sensei's instructions as you complete the missions you are assigned. And now, I will announce the members of each team. Now, Team 1…"

But Naruto didn't hear Iruka anymore. His eyes were sweeping around, catching the image of all his old friends – the Rookie Nine. The ones who had always fought beside him. The ones who had offered their own lives to protect him. The ones whom he always considered his "precious people". And the ones he had failed to protect.

Sakura and Ino were still annoying.

Shikamaru was still lazy. Choji was still munching constantly on his chips.

Kiba was still loud. Shino was still calm and stoic. And Hinata… well, still shy as always.

They're all just like he could remember. As if it was just yesterday, when they were all together, working together on rebuilding the village, fighting besides each other against Obito and Madara…

"Team 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. The jonin sensei is Kakashi Hatake. Team 8…"

"Huh? Wha?" Suddenly snapped out of his trance, Naruto looked around in confusion. "Did you say something?"

00000

At the Memorial Stone in Training Ground Seven, a certain silver-haired masked jonin sneezed violently.

00000

Iruka facefaulted. He chose to ignore it, and repeated.

"I said Naruto, you're together with Sasuke and Sakura, and your jonin sensei is Kakashi Hatake. Now, as I was saying before being interrupted by Naruto," he continued, "team 8 consists of Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame, and their jonin sensei is Kurenai Yuuhi. Team 9…" he flipped the list over and over. "Now where the hell is team 9 in here? Must be a mistake in numbering… Anyway, team 10 consists of Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka. Jonin sensei: Asuma Sarutobi."

He closed his list and smiled. "That's all. Once more, congratulation on becoming Genin, everyone. Now why don't you take a lunch break before meeting your Jonin sensei? Dismiss."

"Hey Sasuke, Sakura! Want to have lunch with me?" Naruto said when everyone started to go out for lunch. Sasuke just 'hn'ed and turned away. Sakura gagged in disgust, and ran after Sasuke, leaving the poor Naruto alone in the classroom.

**_'Well, at least you did try.' _**Kurama pacified the boy awkwardly when his head slumped in disappointment.

**_'That bitch! How dare she doing that to Naru-kun!' _**Chomei exclaimed angrily. **_'That no-good, selfish, barbarian Uchiha-loving whore! When I get my hand on her…'_**

_'It's alright Chomei-chan. I know she didn't mean it… mostly. Well, I'll just eat with you guys instead! Want to try some Ichiraku Ramen?' _Naruto grinned, receiving a nod of approval from everyone in his head. But right before he could step out of the classroom, a masked ANBU shunshin'ed right in front of him, and grabbed his hand.

"Genin Uzumaki, the Hokage wants you in his office immediately. I'm instructed to escort you to him."

Naruto was confused. What did jiji want to do with him at this time?

* * *

"Naruto Uzumaki has arrived, Hokage-sama."

"Good job, Neko. Let him in."

Said ANBU opened the door, and pushed Naruto into the room.

"I can walk by myself, you know," he glared back. The ANBU member just stood there quietly, ignoring Naruto's protest.

Sarutobi cleared his throat. Naruto turned back.

"Ah, jiji!" He smiled. "What do you want from… me…" His voice trailed off when he saw two other people in the room. Shikaku Nara and Inoichi Yamanaka.

"Sit, Naruto." The voice of the Hokage seemed harder than usual.

"What's wrong jiji? Did I do something wrong?" Naruto asked worriedly, his eyes darting across Shikaku and Inoichi. "And what are Shikaku-san and Inoichi-san doing here? Oh god, don't tell me you're going to throw me into jail! That painting in the Hokage Monument is just a joke, I swear!" he finished in panic.

The Hokage sighed, and rubbed his nose bridge. "It's nothing like that, I just want to talk to you about something, Naruto." Then his voice hardened again. "Naruto, tell me the truth. What happened to you the last few days?"

"Huh? There's nothing wrong with me!" Naruto lied nervously, hoping the Hokage would catch it. He didn't.

"Naruto, I'm the one who had been taking care of you for 10 years, I know your personality and your abilities just like my own hands," the Professor narrowed his eyes. "The fact that you knew and completed the tree climbing exercise, an exercise meant for a graduated Genin proves that there is something fishy going on. Now tell me Naruto, or I'm afraid I have to force it out of you."

**_'I think you should tell them, Naruto.'_**

_'Huh? Kurama, are you sure?'_

**_'Yeah. I didn't want anyone to know about this, but if we don't tell them now, I'm afraid they will gut you right in place. Just tell them not to mention it to anyone else.'_** Kurama said, thinking about Danzo. **_'I don't think other people would take it so good… At least I can feel these guys are trustworthy.'_**

"Okay…" Naruto sighed in defeat. "I'll tell you. But first, jiji, can you tell everyone in this room to get out and seal it? Oh, Shikaku-san and Inoichi-san can stay," he added when the two men started to protest. The Hokage hesitated, but finally nodded. Three ANBU appeared from their hiding spots and flickered away. After all ANBU were removed from their position, Sarutobi's hands weaved through hand seals, and a barrier was erected, isolating the room from the world outside.

"It's done. Now Naruto, tell us."

"Well… It might sound absurd, but…" Naruto took a deep breath. "I'm from the future."

* * *

"That was the most absurd story I've ever heard in my life."

"I know jiji. Even I couldn't believe it myself when I first heard it."

After Naruto finished his story, the eyebrows of the three older men in the room were twitching like crazy.

"So, let's recap," Inoichi asked with a strained voice. "You fought a man assumed to be Madara Uchiha, got captured, having the Kyuubi extracted from your body, and then somehow all nine Tailed Beasts escaped from their container, squeezed themselves into your body, and pushed you back to the past?"

"He _is _Madara Uchiha, but yeah, that's basically the story." Naruto answered with a nod.

"And you expect us to believe that bullshit?" The older blonde man snapped at Naruto. "Madara Uchiha has been dead for half a century! He was killed by the First Hokage in the battle at the Valley of the End! And there is no way a human body can handle the chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts! And time travel? Oh please, like that can ever happen!"

"But I'm telling the truth! Why don't you guys believe me?" Naruto snapped back, his voice was full of irritation.

**_'Well, even to me, that story was too unbelievable to be the truth.'_**

_'Not helping, Kurama!'_

"Actually, there is a simple way to confirm his identity."

All three other males turned to Shikaku.

"Well, Hokage-sama, you are the one who is closest to Naruto since he was born, right? So just ask him something only you and Naruto know about. If he can answer it right, then he is the real Naruto." The pineapple-head man shrugged lazily.

Silence.

"Tell me again, how the heck didn't I think of something like that?"

"Because it's such a drag." The Nara man shrugged again.

"Okay Naruto," the old Hokage asked, after a sheepish moment. "What did I give you in your 10th birthday?"

"Hm? What did you gave me… hm…" Naruto squinted his eyes, trying to remember. "Oh! I know! That's Gama-chan! I have her right here!" He reached down his weapon pouch and pulled out the toad-shaped wallet. "Oh, and you also gave me exactly 365 free coupons for Ichiraku Ramen! Mmm… free ramen for a year…"

Sarutobi facepalmed. "Yes, he _is _Naruto. Only Naruto could remember the amount of ramen coupons he spends each year."

"But that still doesn't prove what he said was right," Inoichi protested, then insisted. "I request a memory check on him."

"Uh, I don't think that's a good idea…"

**_'Wait, Naru-kun! Just let him do it!' _**The voice of Chomei suddenly rose in Naruto's head.

_'What are you trying to do?' _Naruto asked back warily. There was obviously something not right here.

**_'Oh, you'll see.'_** The beetle chuckled. Evilly. A chill started to creep on Naruto's spine.

_'You're not going to harm him, are you? He's my friend's dad! I'll not allow you guys to harm him!' _Naruto yelled in his mind in panic.

**_'Oh please, we're not going to do anything harmful to him!' _**she snorted back to him. **_'Permanently…'_**

_'I heard that!'_

But Naruto couldn't say anything more, because Inoichi had already had his hand over his head.

After a minute, the man let out a girlish scream and slumped to the ground. All the other men in the room suddenly cringed and felt an intense urge to cover their crotch.

A roar of laughters echoed through Naruto's head.

_'What have you guys done to him?' _Naruto mentally screamed in horror.

**_'Oh nothing,' _**Shukaku answered between snickers. **_'Just gave him the best wedgie I've ever done.'_**

Another roar of laughters.

_'You guys are so cruel.'_

"He… he's telling the truth…" Inoichi gasped out, his voice full of pain and humiliation.

00000

"So it is true that you are now the jinchuriki of all nine Tailed Beasts, huh Naruto?" Sarutobi asked when Inoichi finally managed to stand up, while mumbling about something suspiciously sounding like 'cursed bully demons'. "I assume you can fully control them, right?"

"Well… yeah, but I won't use the word 'control', jiji. They were my friends, my partners, and I will never force them to give me their power against their wills." Naruto chuckled.

**_'Aw, Naru-kun, we love you!'_**

The cringing returned with full force.

"This is a very crucial matter, Naruto," the old Hokage said in a very serious tone. "You do understand that if this piece of information leaks out, there will be wars, don't you?"

Naruto nodded. "Of course I do jiji. That's why I asked you to kick everyone out and seal up the room."

"But why did you let us know? Me and Inoichi, I mean. It's not like we have any close relationship with you before," Shikaku suddenly asked.

"Well," Naruto scratched his head. "It's because I think you two are trustworthy, being the Hokage's tactical advisors and everything. Even Kyuubi thought so. Besides, if you aren't here, then how can I prove to jiji that I'm telling the truth?"

"Still," the old Hokage's voice rose again. "To prevent anything that could happen, I hereby declare everything mentioned in this room today shall be treated as an EX-ranked secret, and everyone who hears about it except for ones in this room today shall be executed on the spot. Am I making myself clear?"

All three other people looked at each other and gulped.

"This is so troublesome…" Shikaku groaned.

* * *

"All right, spill it. What happened to you today, Naruto?"

Said boy snapped one eye open from his meditation, and glared at Sakura in annoyance.

"What do you mean 'what happened to me', Sakura?"

"You know what I'm saying!" the girl screeched. "What's that with all the new clothes and acting cool and everything?"

"Oh?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "Then I don't have the right to change my clothes or acting cool?"

"Well, I didn't say that…" Sakura hesitated, taken aback by Naruto's retort.

"Listen up, Sakura," Naruto cut her short in a sharp tone. "I'm not the same Naruto you used to know. I'm sick of always being treated as a failure, a dead last, the laughing stock of everyone. Sure, I might be bad at school, alright, but the world out there isn't the same as what we learned in school! We are shinobi now, our works include stealing, killing, or even fighting to the death. You should also change yourself as well, because when we are at the warzone, no one has the time to protect you!"

Sakura was stunned beyond belief. Since when had Naruto become so… serious? She wanted to retort, but words seemed to choke themselves in her throat.

_'Is what he said true? Being a shinobi is that dangerous? Naruto couldn't be serious… could he?'_

**_'Hmph! Even if there are dangers, Sasuke-kun will protect us! CHA!' _**Inner Sakura screamed inside her head.

Naruto stood up, and kicked the door open.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Sakura asked.

"Training. If this Kakashi is anything like I knew about him, then he's going to be late for at least two more hours." Naruto answered nonchalantly. "Want to join me, Sakura, Sasuke?"

"Hn," was the answer. Naruto shrugged.

"Suit yourself."

**_'Wow, talk about harsh,' _**Matatabi commented when they were out of the classroom.

**_'Actually, I think a talk like that is good for her,'_** Gyuki pondered. **_'She is nothing like the Sakura I knew in our time. If this is really how she is, I wonder how she could become such a good kunoichi.'_**

_'Well, she _did _train a lot during the time I was gone training with Ero-sennin, to be fair,' _Naruto admitted. Then he changed the topic. _'Say, anyone of you want to help me training? I could appreciate some help in getting my old skills back.'_

**_'With pleasure,'_** the Tailed Beasts grinned inside his head.

* * *

Kakashi poked his head into the room, only to meet with two annoyed face looking back at him.

"Hmm? I suppose you are team 7 right? But why are there only two of you?"

Sakura shrugged. "Naruto said he had gone training, but I bet he went to find somewhere to sleep."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "That's… quite unexpected. Anyway, meet me at the rooftop in five minutes." Then he poofed away.

"Hn."

* * *

When they arrived at the rooftop, they found a horrifying scene.

Almost all the tiles of the rooftop were cracked or shattered to pieces. One of the water tanks was dented on a side. And lying in the middle of the destroyed roof was Naruto and two of his shadow clones, with their faces full of bruises.

"Wow, so he wasn't kidding when he said he would go training," Sakura muttered.

Kakashi found the scene of destruction in front of him amusing. "You are Naruto, right? Training is good, but next time you should do it in the training ground. You do realize that you have to pay for this damage, do you?"

Naruto lifted his head up when his two shadow clones poofed out of existence. "Ow, my head. Guess I overdid it a little bit… Oh, you must be Kakashi-sensei, right?"

The cyclops gave him an eyesmile. "Yup. Now, let's get to the introduction part. Anyone of you want to go first?"

"Introduction? What do you mean?" Sakura asked, and everyone on the rooftop, including the nine Tailed Beasts, had to refrain from rolling their eyes.

**_'_****This ****_is your kunoichi of the year?' _**Matatabi asked in disbelief.

**_'Trust me, she will be _****much ****_worse,' _** Kurama deadpanned.

_'Hey, that's kind of mean…' _Naruto defended her. All the beasts snorted.

"Well, your name, your likes, dislikes, your dreams for the future and things like that," Kakashi explained.

"Why don't you go first sensei? You look kinda suspicious…" said Sakura warily.

"About me, huh? Hmm…" Kakashi pondered for a while. "Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake. I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes. My dreams… hm… and I have lots of hobbies…"

"Yeah. Very helpful, sensei," Naruto snarked. Sakura and Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Oh? Then how about you going next, blondie?" the jonin quirked his visible eyebrow.

"Sure, whatever," Naruto shrugged. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen, my friends, and the people who cares about me. I dislike liars, traitors and people who want to use my friends to gain power. My dream is to become stronger to protect my friends, and create a peaceful world."

**_'Aw, you're so sweet, Naru-kun!'_**

Naruto cringed. _'Seriously, you have to stop that, Chomei-chan. It's creepy.'_

**_'Aw,' _**the beetle pouted.

Kakashi's eyes widened a bit. This boy was nothing like the Naruto he had known during his time in ANBU. That Naruto was loud, annoying, a knucklehead who always wanted people to notice him. This one was… calm and collected. He wondered what could have changed the boy so much.

And he mentioned his "friends". Kakashi didn't know who they were, but he had a disturbing feeling about that word. He had to mention it to the Hokage somedays.

"You next, broody," he looked at Sasuke. The Uchiha glare back at him.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate lots of things. I don't like anything. My ambition is to resurrect my clan and to kill a certain man."

**_'I don't like him, onii-chan,' _**Saikyo said quietly.

**_'No wonder he is such an emo. Obsession with revenge cannot be good for one's health.' _**Matatabi remarked.

_'Yeah. Wondered if this time I can find some way to talk him out of it…'_

_As I thought, an avenger. _Kakashi narrowed his eyes. _This is gonna be trouble if he keeps that attitude… _"Your turn, pinky."

"My name is Haruno Sakura. The thing I like is…" she glanced at Sasuke and squeed. "My dream for the future…" she giggled while blushing. "My hobby is…" she winked at Sasuke, who 'hn'ed. "What I hate is **Naruto,**" she finished in a disgusted voice.

"Aw, I love you too, Sakura-chan," Naruto said sarcastically, which earned him another gag of disgust from Sakura.

_So basically, she liked Sasuke, her dream for the future is to get into his pants, and her hobby is stalking him? _Kakashi thought. _Girls these day are more interested in love than in ninjutsu…_

"Very well, so we all know each other now," Kakashi said. All three genin rolled their eyes. "Tomorrow we'll start with our shinobi duties. But first, we are going to do something with just the four of us. A survival training."

_This is it. The bell test. _Naruto's mind wandered back to the time he got the test before.

"But why is our first duty a training, sensei? We've had enough training at the academy." Sakura protested. Even Sasuke snorted in disapproval.

"Because this training is nothing like what you've ever done before." Kakashi answered, his visible eye seemed to drill into the three genin's heads. They gulped. Yes, even Naruto.

"This survival training is also a test to select the ones who are truly suitable of becoming genin," Kakashi continued. "Of the 27 graduated candidates, only 9 shall be chosen to become genin, and the rest shall be sent back to the academy. This training is a very difficult exam with a failure rate of over 66%!"

Sakura paled. Sasuke didn't show any clear emotion, but beads of sweat could be seen clearly on his temples. Naruto, having known about this before, just sat there in silence.

"The details are on this paper," Kakashi pulled some leaflets out of his shuriken pouch and gave the three genin. "Anyway, we'll start at 6 tomorrow at Training Ground 7. And don't eat breakfast, you'll just throw up."

Then he flickered away, leaving the three genin on the roof.

_So tomorrow is the bell test. This time I'll show Kakashi-sensei I'm not a useless dead last anymore!_

**_'Yeah, you will. But what are you going to do with the mess you made here?'_**

Naruto looked at the almost destroyed rooftop, and groaned.

* * *

**Definition: EX-rank **

**The highest in the ranking system, surpassing even the S-rank that Kage-level shinobis hold. It defines something that cannot be estimated through ranks alone. In the whole history of the Elemental Country, there is only one person that can be considered an EX-rank shinobi: The Sage of Six Path.**

**An EX-rank secret is considered a secret that cannot be exposed to anyone, except for the people who was told of it before it is declared EX-rank. The people who know the secret shall be forced to sign a Blood Oath, an invention of the First Hokage. From those people, one will be chosen as a Secret Keeper, and only that person has the right to reveal the secret to other people. Others who reveal the secret to anyone else, intentionally or forced, will die immediately before the secret is exposed, and their bodies, including the brain, will be destroyed automatically.**

* * *

**Aaaand... Chapter 3 is done!**

**To tell the truth, I'm not very satisfied with this chapter. It is basically similar to canon, just with some differences in Naruto's characteristics. No change in the teams. I want to keep them as close to canon as possible. There will be some changes in their personalities later, though, but that's in the future :3**

**And in this chapter, Naruto started to show his 'mature' side. After what he suffered in his timeline, we cannot expect him staying a kid forever. Experiences make differences. He will still be the goofy and unpredictable Naruto we all know and love, but he will not be the loudmouthed idiot he was in the past.**

**Oh, and Happy Lunar New Year everyone!**


	4. Chapter 4: The Bell Test Once More!

**Chapter 4: The Bell Test... Once More!**

Naruto arrived at Training Ground 7 at eight, only to find Sakura and Sasuke, whose faces looked like zombies, glaring at him.

"Where the heck have you been, you idiot?" Sakura growled.

"Ichiraku's, of course," Naruto answered. "You don't expect me to go to war with an empty stomach, do you?"

"Kakashi-sensei told us not to have breakfast!" she screeched. "And we're not going to war; this is just a training session!"

"Well, the 'no breakfast' part was not mentioned in the leaflet he gave us, right?" Naruto shrugged. "Besides, he said this training was a test. I don't know about you, but I need my body at the top level before taking any test."

Hearing that, Sakura didn't ask anymore. She just sat down and rubbed her growling stomach, trying her best to calm it down.

"Here."

She raised her head and widened her eyes when she saw a meat bun in front of her face.

"Eat up. I don't have much money, so I could only buy these. It's not much, but still better than an empty stomach, right?" Naruto grinned while throwing another one to Sasuke. "You didn't have breakfast too, did you? Eat up!"

Sasuke scowled. "I don't need your pity."

"Oh come on, this is not the time for empty pride," Naruto snorted. "If Kakashi-sensei is anything like I've heard about him, then we must throw everything we have at him if we want to have a chance against him."

Those words finally got Sasuke's attention. "What do you know about him?" he demanded.

"Well," Naruto started, "Kakashi-sensei was well known all over the Elemental Countries as 'Kakashi of the Sharingan' due to the fact that he has a Sharingan hidden under his hitai-ate," Sasuke's body stiffened against this information, "and he had used it to copy over a thousand jutsu of his enemies. He is one of the very famous shinobi who brought victory to the Leaf in the Third Great Shinobi World War, together with the Fourth Hokage himself."

"No way," Sakura gasped. "Our sensei is that strong?"

"But how did he have the Sharingan? He's not an Uchiha," Sasuke questioned.

"Dunno," Naruto shrugged. He felt that it's better not to tell Sasuke about Obito yet. "But we can already tell that Kakashi-sensei is not someone we can afford to underestimate."

Sasuke didn't say anything for a while. Then, he grabbed the bun and devoured it in one gulp.

* * *

"Sorry guys, I got lost on the road of life."

Naruto deadpanned when his teacher arrived at the training ground at 9.

"You know, that was the lamest excuse I've ever heard in my life, sensei."

And by that, he meant 'still the lamest excuse'.

"Is that so?" Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow. "Then I promise next time you won't hear it anymore."

"You're not gonna be late again?" Sakura asked hopefully.

"No, I'll make a different excuse," the cyclops eyesmiled.

The three genin groaned.

"You have until noon to take these bells from me," Kakashi started while pulling out an alarm clock and two small bells. "Those who cannot get a bell by noon get no lunch, and will be tied to one of those stumps while I and your teammates eat right in front of you. And the one who doesn't have a bell fails, and will be sent back to the Academy."

"But sensei, in the pamphlet you said that we're allowed to use weapons. Isn't that dangerous?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, you won't be able to touch me if you don't come at me with intent to kill," the jonin waved her off. "Now, start when I say…"

With a flick of his hand, five shuriken flew from Naruto's place towards Kakashi. Then without any pause, Naruto pulled a kunai out from his shuriken pouch…

…only for his arm to be bent around, the point of the kunai aimed at his neck.

"Hasty, eh?" the voice of Kakashi rose behind him. "I haven't said 'start' yet."

_Too fast, _Sasuke and Sakura couldn't help sharing the same thought. _I can't even see him moving._

_Just like old time, _Naruto grinned. "You'd better look at your back, sensei."

The tip of another kunai touched the back of Kakashi's flak jacket.

"You used the shuriken as a distraction not only to pull out a kunai, but also to create a shadow clone to ambush me," Kakashi said with an eye smile. "Pretty clever, I must say. Well then, now it's time to start."

He burst into smoke, and the genin leaped away from the clearing.

* * *

**_'I don't understand what you're thinking anymore, Naruto.'_**

_'Oh, chill out, Kurama. It's been a long time since I last challenged Kakashi-sensei. Besides, Sakura and Sasuke need a little time to figure out the meaning of the test, right?'_

**_'Then why don't you just tell them already?' _**the vixen asked. Naruto grinned.

_'Because it's no fun!' _Kurama face-pawed.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, I challenge you!"

Kakashi lifted his eye from his Icha-Icha Paradise. "Well, aren't you a little bit off?"

Naruto didn't say anything. He lowered his body into his taijutsu stance.

00000

_(Flashback)_

_"Ow! How did you even do that?" Naruto screamed, holding his bruised left eye after receiving a vicious punch from Goku._

_"Your problem lies on your fighting stance, Naruto." The ape in his human form answered, surprisingly calmly comparing to his usual loud voice. "Your battle style is just like that of a brawler, only consists of attacking blindly while leaving you with a lot of dangerous openings and no way to defend yourself if your opponent counterattacks."_

_"But I've defeated many powerful enemies with that style!" Naruto protested with a pout._

**_'And you were nearly dead in most of the cases,' _**_Kurama chided from inside his head. __**'Do I need to list them out? Having your body impaled by hundreds of ice needles, letting a fourth of your tenketsu sealed, your heart being damaged to the point that even I and that Tsunade lady together almost failed to repair…'**_

_"Alright alright! I get it!" Naruto growled in frustration. "So what can I do now? It's not like I have the time to think of a new style!"_

_Goku scratched his cheek. "I don't think I can teach you a completely new style in only one day, but I think you can try this…"_

_(End flashback)_

00000

With a kick to the ground, Naruto launched himself towards Kakashi like a bullet. He threw a flurry of punches and kicks at Kakashi; but the jonin blocked every hit with only one hand.

_He was fast… but attacking recklessly like this won't do him any good._

_'Damn it…' _Naruto thought when breaking away from Kakashi. _'He's too good!'_

**_'Remember Naruto, Kakashi was not a jonin in name only.' _**Kurama said.

_**'You're lucky he didn't just punch your head off,' **_Goku dryly noted.

_'Right. Attacking directly is out of the question… time to try some new thing.'_

He threw another quick punch at Kakashi's chest, only for the jonin to stop it with his empty hand easily.

"Is that all you got? How disappointing."

Poor Kakashi. He didn't take his eye off his Icha-Icha Paradise, so he couldn't expect Naruto to quickly grab hold of his wrist mid-punch.

"What the…?"

With a loud cry, Naruto pulled the restrained arm towards him and elbowed Kakashi on the stomach. With his other hand holding his precious Icha-Icha, Kakashi couldn't do anything to block the incoming attack in point blank range. The hit almost knocked the air out of Kakashi's lungs.

_'Hey, it worked!'_

**_'I told you.'_**

The sudden attack also proved to be quite a distraction as a shadow clone of Naruto rushed in from behind and tried to grab the bells on his belt.

_Damn!_

With a quick spin, Kakashi kicked the clone, making it dispersed and threw the real Naruto away a few feet. The genin landed on his feet, and grinned.

"How's that, sensei? So shocked you cannot even speak a word?"

_He turned my strong point into a weak point, and exploited it so well he could land a hit on me while using it as a distraction, _Kakashi thought, _reckless, but quite effective. Naruto really is full of surprises._

"I'm surprised. I must admit, I've underestimated you," Kakashi said, snapping his book closed. "It seems I can't keep reading Icha-Icha while fighting you." And he put the book back into his shuriken pouch.

"Finally decided to play seriously, huh? Then let's see how good you really are, sensei!"

Kicking the ground again, Naruto once more closed the distance between them and launched another punch at Kakashi. The older man immediately caught it, and also blocked the other punch aiming at him from the left.

"One trick won't work twice, Naruto."

"Oh yeah? Then how about this?"

Locking Kakashi's hands with his own, Naruto focused chakra to his feet and released it, using the force to flip over Kakashi's head like jumping from a spring. On the air, he spun, and delivered a rolling kick to the jonin's head.

_Still haven't quite got it yet… But this is enough!_

"You're going down!"

SLAM!

The Kakashi in front of him exploded into splinter.

"What the? Substitution?"

"Shinobi lesson number one: Taijutsu."

"Huh?"

Naruto turned his head, and saw Kakashi behind him, his eye gleaming.

"Hidden Leaf Secret Taijutsu: One Thousand Years of Death!"

Being on the air, Naruto had no way to avoid the deadly fingers of the Cyclops aiming at his ass, and was propelled into the stream nearby.

Just like old time.

"Daaaaaaammmmmnnnnn iiiiiiiittttttttt!"

**_'And that's a lesson for you,' _**Goku choked out while everyone in Naruto's head were busy laughing their asses off. **_'Never use an airborne attack when you cannot make sure you get a hit.'_**

_'All those time… and I still get struck by that stupid technique,' _Naruto growled. _'But I'm not done yet!'_

Three shuriken flew out of the water aiming at Kakashi, but he only tilted his head lazily to the side, and the three throwing stars only struck the tree behind him.

With a battle cry, Naruto burst out of the water.

"You think I'm out of trick yet? Think again!" Naruto rushed towards his teacher, and aimed a low sweep at his leg. "Take this!"

"I said it won't work." Kakashi chided him while jumping up to avoid the kick. But Naruto just smiled.

"Gotcha! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Two clones appeared on the air. One launched a punch at Kakashi's midriff and the other aimed a kick at his head. Naruto smirked.

"Ha! On the air you cannot evade! I've learnt that from you!"

"I cannot evade… but I can strike back!" Kakashi answered calmly, kicked the two clones away and sent himself backward a bit.

Unfortunately, he didn't see the faint smirk on Naruto's face.

Kakashi was suddenly grabbed from behind by three pairs of arms. One grabbed his back, one restrained his arms, and one locked his legs.

_No way, _Kakashi' visible eye widened in horror, _the shuriken from before… they're shadow clones?_

"The bells are mine!" Naruto shouted triumphantly, leaping at the jonin who was now bound helplessly to the ground by his three clones…

…only to crash into a log, proof of Kakashi's substitution.

"Oh man! Substitution again? No fair!"

There was no sign of Kakashi on the clearing anymore.

* * *

Sakura was speechless.

_No way… How can Naruto be so good? He almost got Kakashi-sensei!_

"Looking for someone, Sakura?"

The girl screamed and jumped back when the voice of Kakashi rose next to her ears.

"Shinobi lesson number two: Genjutsu." And the man faded away in a storm of cherry blossom petals.

After a minute, Sakura's mouth foamed, and she fainted.

"Okay, that was anticlimactic."

* * *

Sasuke was angry.

Naruto, the loser, had fought Kakashi Hatake, their jonin sensei, the man who was known as "Kakashi of the Sharingan", according to him, to a stand still. Somehow, that dead last even seemed to have forced the jonin to run away.

Since when had that loser become so strong?

Then maybe, that Kakashi might not even be as strong as Naruto had said… If that dead last could hold his own against the jonin, there's no way himself, the Rookie of the Year, an Uchiha, couldn't do it.

He jumped down from the tree he was hiding, facing Kakashi on the clearing.

"So the mighty Uchiha finally came down to face me," Kakashi drawled. "Such an honor."

"You're weak," Sasuke snidely remarked. "Couldn't even beat a dead last like Naruto."

"Oh? But can you do anything better than him?" Kakashi eyesmiled.

The question seemed to touch Sasuke's ego. He snarled.

"I'm nothing like those losers."

"You can only say that after you get the bell." Kakashi said, the bells on his belt rang as if taunting Sasuke.

Without another word, Sasuke sent three shuriken at Kakashi. And just like with Naruto, the jonin easily sidestepped the projectile weapons. The shuriken flew past the jonin, cutting the rope hidden behind him, and a bunch of knives were launched in the direction of the older man.

_Hidden trap… Good idea, but not enough._

Kakashi jumped aside, and the knives lodged themselves on the bark of a tree behind him. Sasuke took the cue and jumped towards the retreating man, and delivered a kick on Kakashi's head.

The jonin blocked the kick easily with his arm.

"You know, Naruto did try this, and failed."

"Don't compare me to that dead last!" Sasuke yelled, and using Kakashi's blocking arm as a mount, he spun and delivered an axe-kick towards Kakashi's face, upside-down. The bells were right in front of him; he lashed out his hand, trying to grab them…

Only for Kakashi to grab his extending arm and throw him away like a ragdoll.

Sasuke's back slammed into a tree. He grunted in pain, struggling to get up.

_Damn it…_

"It seems the last Uchiha is not as powerful as rumored," Kakashi taunted, and Sasuke snapped. Weaving his hands through familiar hand signs, he performed the jutsu the Uchiha clan was famous for.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

A huge ball of fire blasted out of his mouth, aiming at Kakashi who seemed to be too shocked that a genin could perform such a chakra-wasting technique to avoid it.

Sasuke smirked when the raging inferno engulfed the jonin.

The flame died down, leaving… nothing. Not a charred corpse, not a burning flak jacket, not a jonin rolling around in flame… nothing.

_He's gone… but… where…?_

"Shinobi lesson number three: Ninjutsu."

Sasuke couldn't even turn his head around when a pair of hand grabbed his legs and pulled him underground.

"Well, the last Uchiha really was head above the others," Kakashi said sarcastically, walking away.

_Damn it… the difference in power was too much… _Sasuke gritted his teeth while glaring at the jonin's back, which was getting farther and farther away.

* * *

"Hey, Sakura… Sakura, wake up!"

Sakura groggily opened her eyes, and saw Naruto kneeling right above her face. She screamed and punched the boy on the chest, making him stumbled back a bit.

"Whawhawha…. What the hell did you do you pervert!?" She demanded, her finger pointed shakily at Naruto, who was now wincing and rubbing his chest.

"Just want to wake you up, princess. There's only one hour left until the deadline."

Sakura's eyes widened.

One hour left. There's no way she could get a bell from Kakashi-sensei with only that amount of time. It meant she would be sent back to the academy, and she wouldn't be with her Sasuke-kun anymore.

"Then what… what can I do…" she stammered, tears started welling up in the corner of her eyes.

"We'll think about it later. I have some suspicion, but it will have to wait until we dig Sasuke up."

* * *

"I said I don't need your pity," Sasuke scowled again when Sakura and Naruto finally dug him up from his burial hole.

"Will you just spare me your dramatic brooding, Sasuke?" Naruto snapped. "If you don't pull that huge stick out of your ass soon, it will some day get you killed, maybe even before your so-called ambition comes true."

"It's not a so-called ambition!" Sasuke protested angrily. Naruto ignored him.

"You said that you have some suspicion about the test, right Naruto?" Sakura asked. Since Naruto gave her the donut in the morning, she had felt a new strain of respect towards the blond boy.

"Well… I don't know if it's true, but I suspect the true meaning of this test is not whether we get a bell or not." Naruto stated, while scratching his cheek.

Both Sakura and Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean? Kakashi-sensei said that we need to get the bells from him," asked Sakura.

"And how in the world can we do it?" Naruto asked back. "We're all newly-graduated genin, our skill and experience in combat is nothing compared to a jonin like him. This makes no sense at all. They'd never set a task that didn't have a solution."

"I nearly got it last time," Sasuke denied stubbornly. "The next time I'll get it for sure."

"Like that's gonna happen," Naruto snorted. "Did you realize that during your fight Kakashi-sensei almost didn't use any damaging move?"

Sasuke's eyes widened. He gritted his teeth, and nodded reluctantly.

"But you almost got the bell too," Sakura blinked. Naruto shook his head.

"That's only because I caught him off guard with my Shadow Clone jutsu. I'm sure if I didn't know the jutsu, I would suffer even worse than Sasuke. And he won't fall for that trick again."

"Wait a second," Sakura said slowly. "Maybe you're right. Maybe each of us does not stand a chance against him… but if we work together, just like you did with your clones, we can catch him off guard…" Then she frowned. "But that can't be right… There're only two bells… unless sensei wants to trick us into believing that we have to fight each other…"

**_'Took her long enough to realize it,' _**said Chomei snarkily in Naruto's head.

Silence filled the air as everyone, no, Sasuke and Sakura digested this.

Finally, it was Sasuke who commented.

"That does make some sense. But even if we work together, there is little chance that we'll be able to overpower him. Even Naruto couldn't do it with his clones before. We need a clear and thorough plan for it to work."

Naruto sighed in relief. He had thought Sasuke would be too stubborn to listen to any of his words. He smiled.

"Yeah. And to do that, I think we should know what each of us can do. Right now what I can do is taijutsu and Shadow Clone. What about you Sakura?"

"Well," Sakura scratched her cheek. "I can do the three basic academy jutsu quite well, my taijutsu was adequate, and I can use some simple genjutsu too, but cannot maintain them for a long time. And I have to touch him for the genjutsu to work. I still cannot cast them effectively from afar."

"And you have your monstrous punches," Naruto added helpfully.

"What did you say?" Sakura screeched hysterically, and threw another punch at him. Naruto ducked, and the fist hit the tree behind him, making the bark flying everywhere. Her eyes widened.

"See," Naruto gave her a foxy grin. "I wasn't kidding." Sakura grumbled unhappily.

"And I'm good at taijutsu, shurikenjutsu and some Fire Style ninjutsu," Sasuke concluded. "Very well, I got a plan…"

* * *

"Prepare to hand over the bells, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi lifted his eyes off his book. "You again? Haven't you learnt anything since the last time?"

"It will be different!" Naruto grinned confidently, his index finger pointing at Kakashi. "This time we got a plan that will surely take you down! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

_We? _Kakashi thought when the Naruto clones charged him and unleashed a relentless barrage of punches and kicks. Just like before, Kakashi easily blocked all the attacks, but there was something that didn't seem right. Naruto's attack was different from before: reckless and full of opening. Could it be…

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"

A blizzard of fireballs appeared in the sky above the jonin and rained down his head, intending to set the whole clearing on fire. Kakashi's visible eye narrowed.

_So Naruto did convince Sasuke to work with him?_

Kakashi spun, kicking all the Naruto clones away, and he flashed through a series of hand signs.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

The wind technique blew the fireballs away, revealing… a rain of kunai and shuriken hidden inside the fireballs.

_Shit!_

Pulling out a kunai himself, Kakashi quickly deflected the deadly weapons falling down at him. In about five seconds, the clearing was littered with shuriken and kunai. Wasting no time, Naruto rushed in with his clones, and started attacking Kakashi with his own taijutsu again.

"I told you, this will not work," Kakashi stated when fending off the relentless attack of the boy.

"We don't need it to work," Naruto grinned, "because we already won!"

The punches of Naruto and the clones suddenly turned to grapples, locking Kakashi's hands in place.

_Just like before? Then I will just repeat what I did… _Kakashi silently melded his chakra, readying himself for a Kawarimi…

Only for a bone-shattering punch to land on his back.

Kakashi's eye widened. He was pushed into the weapon field at what moment he couldn't know, and Sakura was right next to him, her fist cocking back.

_What the…?_

"SHANNARO!"

With her favorite battle cry, Sakura launched another devastating punch at Kakashi's exposing back. At the same time, her free hand reached out at the bells on his belt.

_Using substitution to switch with a shuriken on the field and trying to grab the bells when the boys distract me with their jutsu… _Kakashi chuckled under his mask. _They actually figured it out. This team has great potential… if they are able to pass! _

Kakashi spun, and used the momentum to throw Naruto at Sakura. The blond boy slammed hard into the poor girl and fell on the ground.

Kakashi glanced at his belt. The bells were still there. Good.

Right on cue, the ringing from the bell on the alarm clock echoed through the field.

"Well, what do you know," Kakashi said in amusement. "Time's up. And you three didn't get any bell."

"Who said we didn't get any bell, sensei?" The voice of Sakura rose from the human pile. She pushed himself up, and lifted her hand.

She was holding two bells.

"What the… When did you…?" Kakashi looked down in panic. The bells, which were both on his belt just a few seconds before, had gone.

"Right at the time Sakura's punch connected with your back, she put you in a simple genjutsu to trick you into seeing the bells still being on your belt," Sasuke, who was walking out from his hiding place in the woods nearby, explained with a smirk. "And she only had to swipe the real ones from there when you were still thinking that you got us."

"Very good Sakura, you got the bells," Kakashi sighed in defeat. "And I must say, the teamwork of you three during that last attack was, by far, one of the most impressive I've ever seen in a genin team. You even landed a clean hit on me, which no team had ever managed to do before. But now you have two bells, Sakura, so which of your teammates will you choose to pass with you?"

"Hell yeah! Of course I will choose…"

But Sakura faltered when she looked at Naruto.

She hated to admit it, but during this test, the one who did the most was Naruto. He was the one who gave both of them their missed breakfast in the morning. He was the one who faced Kakashi-sensei first. And without Naruto, they could never have figured out the true meaning of the test. If there was anyone who deserved to pass the test the most, it would surely be Naruto.

Meanwhile, the only thing she managed to do was fainting. If she and Sasuke passed the test and Naruto didn't… it would not be fair for him.

But if Naruto passed… it would mean either her or Sasuke failed. Sakura's hand trembled on the thought. She couldn't decide it. Of course she couldn't let her Sasuke-kun failed. But she didn't want Naruto to fail, either. Should she just be a heartless ungrateful bitch and kick Naruto out of the team, or abandon her dream and let Naruto and Sasuke fulfill theirs?

"If you cannot decide, then I will!"

Sakura jerked when Naruto plucked the two bells out of her hand.

"Hey!" she protested.

Naruto split the bells, and threw each of them to Sakura and Sasuke, shocking all the other three people in the training ground.

"Now each of you has a bell. Guess I'll go back to the academy, then."

"But… why?" Sakura stammered in shock. She couldn't understand why the blond did that.

Naruto gave her his trademark foxy grin.

"Well, I have failed the graduation exam three times, so I guess a fourth time would not be that bad. And who knows? Maybe this time I can even be Rookie of the Year with my Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Guilt twisted Sakura's stomach. Naruto was giving himself up just for her and Sasuke to pass…

Images of the times she did horrible things to him flashed through her mind.

"Then I will go back to the academy too."

"Huh?" Naruto blinked.

"During the test I couldn't do anything but fainting, and without you I could never figure out the trick of the test," Sakura inhaled sharply, and continued. "If there is anyone who doesn't deserve to pass this test, it is me."

Silence filled the air again. And finally, Sasuke said.

"If it comes to that, then it means I shall go back too, right? There cannot be a team with only one member."

Kakashi couldn't help but smiled under his mask. _He managed to change both Sakura and Sasuke in such a short time… You really are the most surprising shinobi of the Leaf, Naruto._

"So that's it, huh?" Naruto stretched his back, and yawned. "Well then, do you guys want to go to Ichiraku's with me? This time I'll treat!"

"Really," Sakura chided him. "Is the only food you know in this world ramen, Naruto?"

"Hey, it's delicious!" Naruto defended his favorite cuisine. Sasuke just 'hn'ed.

"Where do you think you're going?" The voice of Kakashi suddenly rose behind them. "I haven't announced the result of the test yet."

The three genin stopped on their trail.

"I hereby announce Team 7… passed the test!"

* * *

**A/N: That's all for the bell test. ****Naruto, with his infamous "Talk no Jutsu", has finally managed to gain respect from Sakura and Sasuke!**

**Again, thanks everyone for all your positive reviews.**

**About Sakura, in my opinion, I don't believe that she was completely useless at the start of the series. In fact, if you take a look at her match against Ino during the Chuunin Exam, you can see her send Ino flying a few meters with a punch. To be fair, Sakura is not weak; it's just her infatuation with Sasuke that makes her a worthless fangirl in canon. So in my story, I decided to buff her up a little bit. **

**And I have to apologize in advance if I couldn't update the story regularly. **

**So then, until next time, please rate and review!**


	5. Chapter 5: Secret of the Massacre

**Over 1000 visitors already! Yay!**

**Disclaimer again: I do not own Naruto. That honor belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Secret of the Massacre**

Naruto was snoring very happily.

Hey, it can't be helped that the bed in his newly-acquired Namikaze Estate was astoundingly comfortable. The bed in his old apartment was no match for this heaven.

And for how he acquired it… Pfft, Naruto might be a little bit slow, but he definitely isn't a fool. He already knew who his parents were, damn it! So it's just a matter of asking the old man, and this comfy little house was his.

Sure, it's not a huge luxury mansion, or a whole clan ground like the Uchiha's, but hey, it's still his house, his inheritance! It's much better than the trash called his old apartment.

"Hey, Naruto, wake up."

So it was natural that the voice of the man standing at the end of the bed didn't even seem to reach his ears.

"On the count of three, if you don't wake up, there will be trouble."

Naruto just mumbled sleepily.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

And a bucket of **very **cold water was dumped unceremoniously on his head.

"#!$% &^*$! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR YOU BASTARD!" Naruto bolted right up, a barrage of profanities shot out of his mouth, making Matatabi blushed, Shukaku giggling like mad and Kokuoh clapping his hands around Saikyo's ears, making the girl puff her cheeks angrily.

Then he looked out of the window.

"WHAT THE #%^$#%#! THE SUN ISN'T EVEN UP!"

Shukaku, Isobu, Goku, Kokuoh and Chomei just grinned cheekily.

"Nature manipulation training coming up! Now get your ass out of that bed, unless you want to take a bath again!"

Naruto groaned. That was the price for having all five nature chakra affinities, and a bunch of drill sergeants in the form of the Tailed Beasts living together with you.

* * *

_(Flashback)_

_Naruto approached Kakashi at Training Ground 7. Kokuoh had told him to ask Kakashi to check his nature affinity._

_'But why do I have to do that? I have wind as my nature,'_ _Naruto asked in confusion._

**_'Well, I just want to check if my suspicion was right,'_**_the horse answered. __**'Come on, it won't hurt to know.'**_

_'Well… but asking that out of the blue may make Kakashi-sensei suspicious… Oh, I know!'_

_"Hey Kakashi-sensei! Can you teach me how to use Fire jutsu like Sasuke, please?"_

_Kakashi lifted his eye off his book. "Nature manipulation is an advanced skill, Naruto. Why do you want to learn it so soon?"_

_"Well, I cannot do anything else except for taijutsu and shadow clones spamming," Naruto shrugged. That was the truth though; the more destructive techniques of him were all unavailable at the moment. "So I would like to, you know, improve my arsenal a bit. After all, Sasuke can do it, and he is a genin just like me."_

_"I guess that's true," Kakashi admitted. He rummaged through his shuriken pouch and pulled out a piece of chakra paper. "But first we have to check what your affinity is. Channel your chakra into this piece of paper and we will know."_

_Naruto received the paper, and channeled his chakra into it._

_The paper was shredded into exactly one hundred little square pieces. Twenty five of them were burnt into ash, twenty five crumbled to dust, twenty five turned into small balls of paper, and twenty five were soaking wet._

_Kakashi dropped his book._

_"So… what kind of affinity do I have, sensei?"_

_(End flashback)_

* * *

Three hours later, the five Tailed Beasts returned, dragging behind them an unconscious Naruto.

"Let me guess," Kurama sighed, rubbing her temples. "He overloaded his mind with shadow clones again?"

"Yeah," Kokuoh admitted. "I've warned him that using too many shadow clones in training would be dangerous, but noooooo, he just didn't listen."

"So… how many clones did he use?"

"Over nine thousand," sighed Kokuoh.

Gyuki, who was in the middle of drinking, spat all the water in his mouth at Goku's face, who was, unfortunately, sitting in front of him.

"What? Nine thousand? There's no way that can be right…"

Then he saw Kurama's face. "…can it?"

Kurama shook her head. "He is _Naruto_, you know."

"But… but that doesn't even make sense!" the oxtopus man sputtered. "I know his signature jutsu is the Shadow Clone, but how in the world did his brain survive after all those memory backlashes? And there is no way the backyard of this house could hold such an absurd number of people at the same time! It's just like, the whole population of Kumogakure!"

Kurama rubbed her temples again. "Behind the house was a forest. And remember, with Naruto, there is no such thing called 'making sense' in his dictionary."

In front of them, the mess which was Naruto started to twitch.

"Ugh… what hit me?" Naruto groaned, pushing himself up from the ground.

"Ah, he's awake." Isobu noted. "That was quite fast. I thought he would have been in a coma for at least a week."

"Naruto," Kokuoh looked at his eyes and said in a serious tone. "Training is good, but overexerting yourself like that is intolerable. From now on, I will only allow you to use one hundred clones at most during training."

"What?" Naruto protested. "But that is not fair! I can create even more than I did today! Why should I restrain myself like that?"

"Remember Naruto, when a clone is dispelled, its memories and experiences will be transferred back to the original," the horse man lectured. "If it was just one or two clones, or even ten, it would be fine, but the memory backlash of thousands of clones is not something to joke about. You saw what happen when you dispelled all those clones at the same time. To a normal person, it might cause a shock to the whole nervous system, his body might stop functioning properly, and in the worst case, he dies. That is the reason why the Second Hokage declared that jutsu a forbidden one right after he invented it, and only the small-scale version of it is common among shinobi."

"But that will take too long for me to learn things!" Naruto pouted.

Now you're being hypocritical there, Naruto.

"Don't worry Naruto-kun. Training in nature manipulation is not something you can do in just a few hours," Matatabi said, while putting a huge pot of potato soup on the table. "I still remember when Yugito trained her fire element, she needed half a month before she could create a proper fireball."

"Actually, I was able to do it."

Matatabi stopped dead on her path. "Eh?"

"Yeah, already got the wind element done; it is just a matter of memory. I also managed to wet half a leaf, and made another one breaking apart," Naruto mumbled. "But when I tried burning a leaf, it just dried up a bit before returning to normal. And I can't seem to get lightning at all. It just doesn't feel… right."

Gyuki and Matatabi were appalled. During their almost eternal life, they had never heard of anyone who could do nature manipulation in just a few hours.

"That's also our impressions when we first saw it," Shukaku said dryly. Goku, Chomei and Isobu nodded in agreement. "Either this boy was a genius, or a complete idiot. Only someone without anything in his head could absorb knowledge that fast."

"Hey!"

"I'm not surprised," Kurama commented. "After all, you're my jinchuriki." A hint of pride could be heard in her voice.

"You like him~! How cute!" Chomei cooed.

Kurama's face became beet red. "I-I'm not!"

"Someone's in denial~" Chomei said in a sing-song voice while running away from her sister, laughing like mad. Kurama snarled and leaped, intending to choke the breath out of the beetle girl's lung.

"You'll never catch me!"

"Don't push your luck, bug!"

Two black spheres appeared on Kurama's hands. Naruto was startled; if she used that attack inside the house…

Two tentacles made of plants suddenly burst into the room, wrapping around the two girls' bodies and tying them up.

"Sis, how many times do I have to tell you not to fight inside the house?"

It was Saikyo who had just arrived from the kitchen, holding ten bowls on her hands. Massive killing intent was leaking furiously from her, and the air in the room suddenly felt like freezing.

And she was smiling. Sweetly. Too sweetly. To the point of disturbing.

"Let's cool your head down a little, shall we?"

Kurama and Chomei shook their head frantically, their body quivered, and for the first time, Naruto could see an expression he never thought he would see on the two Tailed Beast girls' faces.

**Fear.**

Saikyo put the bowls she was holding on the table, and walked out of the house through the backdoor. The two wicked tentacles pulled the two struggling girls out of the room, and a minute later, wailing screams filled the air.

"No way," Naruto muttered in his breath. "Since when has Saikyo-chan been so scary?"

"Trust me, you haven't seen everything yet," Gyuki mumbled in the same tone, his face paled in utter horror. Naruto gulped.

After a few minutes, Kurama and Chomei dragged themselves into the house. Their faces were full of bruises, and lumps could be seen on their heads.

"S-so, let's get to breakfast, okay everyone? The food is getting cold," Matatabi said, trying to break the awkward moment. Everyone nodded, still a little bit shaken, and got in the table.

"Wow, this is so delicious!" Naruto tasted a spoon of his soup, and his eyes widened. "Did you make this, Matatabi?"

"Actually, it's Saikyo who made it," the cat girl answered. "Honestly, I don't know where she learnt how to cook; Tailed Beasts usually do not need to eat."

"Um… Utakata-nii-chan was an awesome cook…" the slug girl said with a shy smile. "He taught me how to cook in our free time, so… Mine can't even compare to what he could do…"

"Are you kidding me?" Naruto exclaimed in disbelief. "This is the best food I've ever had, besides Ichiraku Ramen! You're so awesome, Saikyo-chan!"

The white haired girl blushed hard.

Seriously, what's with girls and changing attitude like flipping a book?

Naruto's second bowl was devoured as quickly as the first one.

* * *

**_'Do you really think that will work, Naruto?' _**Kurama asked anxiously.

_'I've thought about it for a while,' _Naruto answered. _'He will have to know about it, sooner or later. And I think it's better if he knows about it right now, when he is still sane and thoughtful, rather than later when Orochimaru messes his mind up with the curse mark, or when Obito pumps into his head his load of bias images.'_

**_'Wow. I can't believe you, of all people, could think as a strategist.'_**

Naruto pouted. _'Hey, I'm not that bad!'_

The blond jinchuriki had arrived at the Hokage Tower. He knocked at the door of the Hokage's room, and a 'Come in' was heard from inside.

"Ah, Naruto," the old Hokage greeted him with a smile. "How do you like your new house?"

"Awesome, jiji!" Naruto smiled back. "I've never slept in anything so comfortable before!" Then his smile disappeared, replaced by a serious expression. "Hey jiji, I want to talk to you about something. It is very important."

"Oh?" Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "And what could that be?"

"The Uchiha massacre," Naruto said shortly.

The old Hokage stiffened. Then he looked at the corners of the room.

"Neko, Inu, Hitsuji, you're dismissed."

The air in the corners shimmered a bit, then became quiet and still again. Sarutobi weaved through hand seals, activating the privacy barrier of the room again. Then he turned back to Naruto.

"I trust you know what really happened during the Massacre in your timeline, right Naruto?"

Naruto nodded.

"Of course I did," he stated. "But I think there is no way Itachi could do that alone. I suspect that there must at least be someone else who helped him at that night."

The Hokage's eyes narrowed. "And why do you think that?"

"Chakra, of course," Naruto shrugged. "I've faced Itachi some times before, and even in his prime, he didn't have enough chakra to use his Mangekyo Sharingan techniques too much. Hell, as far as I remember, a clone with a third of his chakra couldn't use the Mangekyo at all. So how in the world did Itachi murder a whole clan with hundreds of people, all equipped with the Sharingan, and some were jonin, ANBU or even Hokage candidate alone when he was just, well, fifteen or something like that?"

Sarutobi sighed. The Naruto of the future was incredibly sharp.

"All right Naruto. The truth is…"

* * *

After hearing the story from the Hokage, Naruto's body trembled like crazy.

Not from fear, but from rage.

It was nothing like the story Obito, or even Itachi, told him in his timeline.

"So that means you have known about this for three years…" Naruto gritted his teeth, "…and didn't bother to tell Sasuke a word?"

Sarutobi nodded solemnly. "The council was against it. Besides, I fear that if Sasuke knew, he would go mad from the revelation…"

"You _fear_?" Naruto's voice was now full of anger and disbelief. "And you prefer other people planting lies into his head and making him even crazier? During my time, he was mind-fucked by Itachi _twice_, then marked with a cursed seal by Orochimaru, making his head even more of a mess, and was finally told a version of the story without _all _the important facts, which made him an even more deranged person who tried to destroy the village to 'purify the name of the Uchiha clan'! All because there was no one who told him the whole truth about that incident! And you think that is better for him?"

Sarutobi sat there, horror-struck. He hadn't even thought that his hiding the truth could affect the mind of the Uchiha loner that much.

Naruto stood up. "I'm leaving, jiji. I hope you understand what you have to do right now. If you don't do it, I will, because I don't want to lose one of my friends to madness and hatred. Not this time. Release the barrier."

That was a command. The old man complied dumbly, while staring at the back of the blond boy who was retreating from his office.

Never before had he felt so old and weak.

And something inside the man snapped.

"ANBU!" He barked, and an ANBU member flicked into the room.

"Go find Jiraiya," Sarutobi gritted his teeth, "and bring him to my office immediately without delay."

He would not allow this to prolong any further. The Will of Fire shall burn once more.

* * *

Sasuke was surprised to see the Hokage, together with a white-haired old man he didn't know, standing at his door.

"What do you want?" he scowled.

The Hokage didn't smile. "Sasuke, we want to talk to you about the Uchiha Massacre."

"I don't want to talk about it," snarled Sasuke, trying to slam his door closed, but Sarutobi stopped his hand.

"Trust me, the information I bring here might completely change your view about the whole incident, and even about Itachi, your brother."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed upon hearing the name. Then, after a few seconds, he said.

"Come in."

* * *

"So what is the information you want me to hear?" Sasuke snapped rudely.

Sarutobi and Jiraiya sat down at the table. "First, I want to introduce you to Jiraiya. He's one of the Legendary Sannin, and is the head of Hidden Leaf's spy network."

Sasuke just glared at the white-haired man, and nodded.

"Now, before we start, I want to ask you," the Hokage continued. "Do you know about the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha ten years ago?"

Sasuke was confused. What was of that story related to his clan's massacre?

"I don't see any-"

"Just tell me, Sasuke," the Hokage cut him short with a sharp glare. Sasuke gulped, and answered.

"Yes, I do. The Kyuubi suddenly appeared in the outskirt of the village in October 10 and started attacking the village for no reason. The Fourth Hokage killed it, and lost his life in the process."

"That is the story you've learnt at the Academy," Sarutobi nodded. "But the truth is, there actually _was _a reason for the attack. During that night, there was one person who sneaked into the village, released the Kyuubi from its jinchuriki, and used it to attack the village."

"What is a jinchuriki?" Sasuke questioned.

"The container of the beast," Jiraiya answered. "The Kyuubi has been sealed inside jinchurikis of Konoha for three generations."

"As I was saying," the old Hokage continued, "at that night, a person sneaked into the house of the jinchuriki, attacked her while she was giving birth and killed her midwife, as well as my wife Biwako Sarutobi, before breaking the seal, unleashing the Kyuubi and taking control of it to attack Konoha. There were evidences of usage of the Sharingan on the beast that night."

The old man placed a few photos on the table. In the photos were the image of a nine-tailed fox, and its eyes were in the familiar three-tomoe shape of a fully matured Sharingan.

Sasuke was stunned.

"Do you know who the first person taking control of the Kyuubi in history was, Sasuke?" Jiraiya suddenly asked. Sasuke nodded.

"Yes. From what I know, the first person who gained complete control over the Kyuubi was Madara… Uchiha…"

Then his eyes widened in realization. "So that's it, huh?" he snarled. "You destroyed the Uchiha clan to prevent the Kyuubi incident from happening again?"

Sarutobi raised his hand. "Please let us finish before you raise your idea."

That was just a simple request, but the power and authority hidden inside was the most incredible thing Sasuke had ever felt. He gritted his teeth, but complied.

"The problem here was not the fact that the attacker that night was an Uchiha with the Sharingan, but was that the Uchiha clan didn't do anything to help defending the village during the attack. One of the greatest clan in Konohagakure, with over two hundred potential shinobi still in rotation, and none of them showed up to report during the night of the attack. It's just like they had wanted the Kyuubi to weaken the village's defense. Connecting all the evidences, we couldn't help suspecting that there was something fishy going on within the Uchiha clan. Therefore, I had established a secret investigation on the clan, and this is the result."

The Toad Sage pulled out a scroll from his shuriken pouch and put it on the table in front of Sasuke. Quietly, the boy opened the scroll, and his eyes widened.

"No way… My clan planned to overthrow the Hokage, and taking over the village?" he muttered in shock.

"I'm afraid they did, Sasuke. And it seems they had planned and prepared for this since the night the Kyuubi attacked the village, during which the Uchiha clan members were absent from the Uchiha clan ground," the Hokage nodded gravely. "And the night of the massacre is the estimated date of breakout of the coup. According to the Constitution of Konohagakure, attempting coup d'état is an action that might cause wars and thus shall be executed for treason against the village."

"But why did you use Itachi for your dirty work?! Why Itachi? Because of you, Itachi had been forced to murder the whole clan! _His_ _own _clan! Do you know what it feels to have your own family murdered right in front of you? Not to mention he had to do it _himself_! Do you understand how that hurts?" Sasuke screamed in rage.

"I understand what you want to say, Sasuke, but I haven't finished yet," Sarutobi shook his head. "It's true that Itachi accepted the mission voluntarily, but that was where everything went wrong. The true mission of Itachi was not killing the entire Uchiha clan."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke gritted his teeth. The old Hokage pulled out another scroll.

"See it for yourself, Sasuke."

Sasuke snatched the scroll from the old man's hand and ripped it open. Then he almost dropped it because of his shaken hand.

**_Mission: Assassination_**

**_Rank: S_**

**_Reason: Attempting coup d'état on Konohagakure's government_**

**_Target:_**

**_Fugaku Uchiha_**

**_Hikaku Uchiha_**

**_Inabi Uchiha_**

**_Yashiro Uchiha_**

**_Tekka Uchiha_**

**_Tadama Uchiha_**

**_Sayuri Uchiha_**

_…_

Many names were written in the scroll, but not the name of every member of the clan, as far as Sasuke knew. The date in the scroll was the day of the massacre, and the signature at the bottom of the scroll was written, very clearly, in the familiar and unmistakable handwriting of Itachi Uchiha, with a fingerprint of him next to it.

Sasuke's lips were cold and numb.

"But… but this is…" he stammered in shock.

"It is, Sasuke," the Hokage nodded. "This is the official documentation of that mission, signed by Itachi himself. That mission was issued for secret execution of only the ringleaders of the coup."

"Then… when he told me that he murdered my clan to measure his capacity…"

"He was lying," the Hokage nodded. "He must have thought the betrayal of the Uchiha clan would be too much of a shock for a boy who was proud of the clan like you, Sasuke."

"Then WHY DID HE KILL EVEN MY MOTHER!? SHE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! SHE IS NOT EVEN ON THE LIST! AND HOW COULD YOU KNOW THAT ITACHI DIDN'T GO MAD AND KILLED OTHER PEOPLE IN THE CLAN?!" Sasuke screamed, tears started to form at the corner of his eyes. Sarutobi shook his head.

"I'm afraid I don't know anything about your mother, Sasuke. But I'm sure that the one who killed all the other members of the clan was not Itachi. Take a look at these pictures."

He tossed some more photos on the table. "This is the photos captured from the forensic investigation on the corpses of some members of the Uchiha clan. You have learnt about weapons at the Academy, so you can see that the wounds are too big and shallow for a tanto or a kunai, and the cuts were very clean. Therefore, the murder weapon was not Itachi's tanto, but a very sharp kama enhanced with wind element chakra to broaden and sharpen the blade. Itachi cannot use neither a kama nor wind element, so we can conclude that it wasn't him who committed the massacre of the Uchiha clan. At least, not the whole clan."

Sasuke's mind was on the verge of breaking. "But… then why did Itachi run away from home and become a missing-nin…?"

"That is not something which can be discussed at the moment," Jiraiya interrupted when Sarutobi started speaking. "However, I can assure you that the decision of leaving the village is of Itachi himself. He came to the Hokage and requested banishment right after the massacre. I think it was to protect you, Sasuke, because together with that, Itachi also requested absolute protection of you from those who want to use you as a breeding stock, and those who want to use you as a weapon of Konoha."

The weight of the truth finally became too much for Sasuke's brain to handle. With an ear-piercing scream, he collapsed on his chair and started to sob uncontrollably, the world seemingly collapsed in his eyes.

Jiraiya started to rise from his chair, but Sarutobi put one hand on his shoulder to stop him. The old man looked into Sasuke's empty eyes, and said.

"Sasuke, I don't know if you understand this, but Itachi is a person who cherishes peace more than most things in the world. If the coup d'état had broken out, not only Konohagakure would have been put in grave danger, but the whole world might also have fallen into another Shinobi World War, and many innocent lives should have been wasted on meaningless battles. Itachi understood that, and he didn't want you or your friends, or any other citizen of Konohagakure to suffer that horrible fate, so he chose the best thing he could do to protect you and many other people."

He paused a bit, and continued.

"This might feel like an insult to you, Sasuke, but I have to say that one of the Uchiha clan's fatal flaws is their superiority complex. Madara, one of the founders of the village, has always dreamt of gaining control over the village since he and his clan joined force with the First Hokage, just because he believed that he had the power of the ultimate Sharingan. Even before the village was established, people in the Uchiha family had always waged war with other clans just to prove that they are the most powerful, and that they have the right to dominate everyone. Just think of what their nonstop boasting of power had made them into. Remember that, and choose your own way carefully, Sasuke. Now if you excuse me, I must leave."

With those last words, the Hokage stood up, glanced at Jiraiya, and the two men left the house, leaving Sasuke alone with his own thoughts.

When they were outside of the Uchiha clan estates, Jiraiya asked. "Do you really think that is okay, sensei?"

Sarutobi answered solemnly. "I don't know Jiraiya, I really don't know."

_I hope you are right about this, Naruto…_

* * *

Sasuke sat, alone, in the darkness.

He thought about what the Third Hokage and Jiraiya had said to him. He didn't want to believe it. His clan, the Uchiha clan, had been the pride of Konohagakure since the village was born. How could they suddenly decide to betray the village just like that? But all those decisive evidences all pointed out towards that only possibility… Despite how much he tried to deny it, the truth was still there, clear and conclusive.

He thought about his father. He had always wanted the man to tell him that he was his son, and to tell him to improve himself to soar to great heights. He had always wanted to be like his father, to become a powerful and talented shinobi like him, to follow his footstep…

But did he want to be like him anymore?

He thought about Itachi. For so long had he thought of the man as a mass murderer, and he had sworn on his life to become an avenger to make him pay for what he had done to the clan. And suddenly, Itachi turned out to be a peace-loving man who sacrificed himself and his family to prevent a war from breaking out.

Memories of that fateful night rushed back to him. He remembered a figure on top of the power pole, watching him as he ran back home from the academy. He remembered Itachi standing over the corpses of his parents, his tanto dripping with blood. He remembered facing the man on the street, his eyes morphing into the Mangekyo Sharingan…

And he remembered in that night, Itachi's face had been full of tears.

Blinded by revenge, he had never even stop to consider thinking what that meant.

Sasuke stood up. The sun was already half down the mountains afar, and the sky was turning red.

"Just wait for me Itachi," he mouthed quietly. "Someday I will find you, and you will tell me the whole truth. With your own mouth."

* * *

**A/N: And Chapter 5 is done.**

******You can see that in my story, I decided to twist the 'curse of hatred' thing a little bit. Together with that, I added some changes to the coup d'état and the massacre, too. I think it would make more sense.**

******Ah, the over 9000 joke will never get old. And for anyone who was wondering, no, Gyuki is not Nappa. He just channels him for the lulz.**

******And the breakfast scene might sound silly, I admit. The truth is, I'm not very good at writing everyday life scene.**

******And for someone who asked me abot Naruto's fighting style in the last chapter: In my opinion, Naruto is always fighting as a brawler. The Frog Kata can only be used by a Sage who has access to nature chakra, which enhances his speed, reflex, strength and durability to an extreme level. Because of that, users of Frog Kata usually don't need to defend much; they just have to avoid hits with their buffed reflex and speed, as far as I understand. Basically, no Frog Kata without nature chakra. Because of that, it is understandable that Naruto had to return to brawling, which is basically how Naruto prefers to fight. ********  
**

******See you on the next chapter! Until then, please review!**


	6. Chapter 6: D-ranks and Training

**Chapter 6: D-ranks and Training**

"Why did you tell the Uchiha boy about that without asking us, Sarutobi?"

Koharu Utatane slammed her hands on the table in front of the Hokage in rage, making the paper on it flying everywhere. The old Hokage just threw her a sharp glare.

"And tell me, why _should _I ask you about what I am going to do to one of my shinobi, Koharu?"

"We are the council advisors!" the old hag screeched not unlike a certain pink-haired kunoichi. "We have the right to know…"

Killing intent suddenly filled the room. The two advisors slumped down on the ground in fear, choking on their spit when Sarutobi stood up, his eyes glued at their faces with a menacing glare as if he was out for their blood.

"Listen up you," the old man growled. "You may be the council advisors, but **I **am the **Hokage**. This is a shinobi village, and I hold absolute power over all shinobi and kunoichi in this village, including **you**! What I decide to do with my shinobi is not of your competence to interfere. **Understand?**"

Koharu and Homura nodded shakily. They understood that, despite being an old coot just like them, Hiruzen Sarutobi was not known as the third God of Shinobi for nothing.

"ANBU!" the Hokage barked. "Get these two meatbags out of my office!"

Behind the door, Danzo Shimura cursed in his mind. He didn't expect the old monkey Sarutobi to make a come back like this. Because of this, his plan to take over the Hokage seat in the near future would be much harder to bring into action.

But no matter… He still had other ideas in mind…

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei is late again."

Sakura tapped her foot on the ground in annoyance. Naruto sighed, shaking his head.

"Well, he _is _Kakashi-sensei after all. We shouldn't have listened to him."

This was the fourth time said sensei was late in a team meeting. He said that they would begin their first mission that morning.

But seriously, who in their right mind would issue missions for them at _5 freaking a.m._?

"Damn that Kakashi," Sasuke grumbled. "Luckily I'm used to waking up early…"

"Well, going back home now is just silly," Naruto started. "How about sparring until Kakashi-sensei arrives? I'm getting itchy for a good fight."

Sakura hesitated. "Uh… I don't think doing that before a mission is a good idea…"

"Very well," Sasuke cut in. "I also want to see how strong you really are."

After the bell test, everyone in Team 7 had seen Naruto in a different eye.

Naruto grinned. "Sweet! So how about you and Sakura team up against me?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Two against one? What makes you so confident?"

Naruto deadpanned, then crossed his fingers. A shadow clone appeared next to him in a puff of smoke. Sakura groaned. "Right, say no more."

"Then let's get started," Sasuke declared with a smirk. Naruto grinned back at him.

"Bring it on."

* * *

"Hey you three, I was going to come here at 5, but a black cat crossed…"

"ORYAAAAA!"

Kakashi had to jump out of the way when a shadow clone of Naruto was thrown straight at his face.

"Heh, you're actually quite good, Naruto," Sasuke grinned between heavy breathes.

"What did I tell you?" Naruto grinned back. There was no sign of fatigue on his body. "I'm just that awesome."

Then they charged at each other again.

Next to them, Sakura was out cold on the ground. Her face was full of bruises, and her left eye sported a brilliantly purple shade.

Kakashi sighed. He knew that it's time to stop the two boys.

"Alright, you two. It's time for our mission..."

Sasuke finally collapsed on the ground, drained out.

"Damn it, Naruto," he panted in exhaustion. "Do you ever get tired in your life?"

"Heh heh, no," Naruto answered with a smile. "People didn't call me a walking tank of stamina for nothing."

"Hey, don't ignore me…"

"Ow, my head…" Sakura woke up with a groan. "Do you really have to punch me that hard, Naruto?"

Naruto scratched his head sheepishly. "Sorry Sakura, but if I hadn't done that, you would have drilled me to the ground with your own punches. But really, I didn't think a punch like that could knock you out."

"Well, sorry for not being a stamina freak like you!" Sakura retorted.

An ominous aura of depression suddenly covered the training field, making the three genin turn their heads. The source of it was Kakashi, who was now sulking on the ground, a rain cloud floating over his head.

"My cute little genin are ignoring me…"

"What's wrong with him?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Nah, just let him be. He'll get better," Naruto answered with a shrug.

* * *

"All right, so today you'll officially start your shinobi career," Kakashi said with a voice full of authority. "What we're doing today is something incredible. It concerns the life of citizens of Konohagakure. It is the fear of all generations of shinobi, in all ranks, of all ages."

"So what is it?" Sasuke asked. He was starting to feel irritated.

Kakashi gave him an eye smile.

"D-rank missions."

Unfortunately for Kakashi, he focused too much on Sasuke to notice Naruto's evil grin.

* * *

Tora the Cat, the pet of the Fire Daimyo's wife, the terror of every shinobi in Konohagakure, was running on the village street.

She had escaped from that horrible excuse of a master, again.

It's just too easy to find an opening from that fat woman, and she only needed a precise scratch and quick feet to find freedom.

Today, she heard that another new team of genin was sent to capture her.

She had escaped over a thousand genin. No shinobi in the village had ever captured her without their face being scratched badly. Two days ago, a team of new genin had also been sent, and she had completely ruined their faces before resigning herself to the jonin that was with them.

So why should she be afraid of another bunch of snot-nosed brats?

Oooh, but she didn't know that this bunch of snot-nosed brats was completely different from any other bunches of snot-nosed brats.

Especially when that bunch of snot-nosed brats consisted of one Naruto Uzumaki.

From the _future._

Like people say, curiosity killed the cat. And Naruto had applied that very well to this case.

The poor cat never knew what hit her.

* * *

"Forty five minutes. Wow, this is a new record. Never before has a team completed the infamous 'Capturing Tora' mission in less than one hour."

"Well, what can you say?" Naruto smirked. "We're just that awesome."

"However, Team 7 shall be banned from this mission from now on." The Third Hokage continued without missing a beat.

"What? Why?!" Naruto wailed dramatically. Sasuke snorted.

"Do you even have to ask? Remember what you did to that cat."

"I have to agree, Naruto," Kakashi chimed in. "Tying the target up with five rolls of ninja wire and a sticky net, showering it with a mixture of paint, jam, water, glue, alcohol and mud, then throwing it into a barrel of tar and feather and dragging it on the ground all the way to the Hokage Tower is too overkill for a cat, you know."

"That's right Naruto," the Hokage nodded. "As effective as it is, we want to return Madam Shijimi's pet alive, not as a corpse covered in whatever you threw at her."

"It's a demon cat. It'll live," Naruto shrugged.

**_'Now that was too mean of you, Naruto-kun,' _**Matatabi said inside his head. Naruto raised an eyebrow. **_'What? I'm a cat too!'_**

"And seriously, how in the world did you have the time to set all those traps?" Sakura asked incredulously. "It's like, let's see, twenty traps in total! In just about ten minutes!"

"Nah, it's nothing comparing to the time I snuck into the ANBU headquarter to spray glue into the masks of ANBU members," Naruto waved his hand absently.

The air in the room suddenly became freezing cold.

"Did you really say what I think you did, Naruto?" Kakashi turned back to him and gave him a disturbingly sweet eye smile. Naruto, realizing what he had just said, smiled nervously.

"Ah… that… well, you see…"

"Excuse me Hokage-sama," Kakashi grabbed his shoulder, the disturbing eye smile never left his face. "I and my cute little student here are going to have a special student-teacher bonding moment."

Naruto gulped.

* * *

One hour later, Naruto returned to Training Ground Seven, with Kakashi right next to him. His whole body was full of bruises and scratches.

"What happened to you?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Naruto just mumbled something incoherent in his mouth.

"Ah, nice weather," Kakashi said with another eye smile. He seemed very cheerful. Too cheerful, I might say. "Now as we have completed the mission today so fast with the help of Naruto here," Naruto just grumbled unhappily, "I think it's time for some training. Are you ready, my genin?"

No one raised an objection. Or maybe it's because Naruto's jaw hurt so much he couldn't even speak properly yet.

Come to think of it, Naruto was a training freak, so nah, he probably wouldn't mind anyway.

"Gee, thanks a lot, author."

You're welcome. And please, don't break the fourth wall.

"Very well. Today I will teach you how to climb a tree."

Kakashi stopped when he saw the faces of Sasuke and Sakura.

"What? Is something wrong?"

"Uh, but climbing a tree is not hard. We can do it already," Sakura blinked.

"Oh? But do you know how to do it like this?"

With those words, Kakashi walked towards a tree, and started walking up the trunk. He continued to walk until he reached a pretty high branch.

"I can do it," Naruto raised his hand from below, making Kakashi nearly fall off the branch.

"Really? Demonstrate, then," he ordered, after managing to retain his balance on the branch. Naruto nodded, and started walking up another tree nearby, until he reached a branch as high as Kakashi's.

"Where did you learn that?" Sasuke demanded, getting upset as the dead last knew something he didn't know.

"Oh, I saw someone did that before, and decided to ask them how to do it," Naruto shrugged. "I've just completed it a few days ago. It turns out to be an effective technique to run away from people chasing me, you know."

Hearing that, Sasuke didn't push further. Actually, he himself had seen people in his clan doing things like that many times before. He cursed himself mentally for not asking Itachi or his father how to do it.

Sakura was also surprised, though not very much. After witnessing what Naruto had done during the bell test, she understood that Naruto had been hiding many things from everybody. Therefore, if Naruto had known some techniques before her, it wouldn't have been a strange thing anyway.

But Kakashi was the most upset. Being a jonin, he knew exactly what the greatest problem of Naruto was. And when he said 'people chasing me', he understood it as 'mobs chasing after me to kill the demon'. Being Naruto's secret guardian for a long time, he couldn't help feeling guilty about letting the boy suffer like that. Now, listening to the boy talking about that like some daily routine, the guilt started to bubble up again in his heart. He felt that in some way, he had failed Minato-sensei. He had failed to protect his teacher's son, failed to give the boy a better life when he didn't have the love of his parents.

"But why do we have to learn this?" Finally, after a few seconds, Sasuke spoke up. "I mean, it just looks like some fancy way to travel. It does not seem to help anything in battle."

"Ah, I was going to explain that," Kakashi answered. "Now, how about you try to do it first, Sasuke? Channel chakra to your feet, and run up the trunk."

Sasuke stared at him incredulously, but then nodded and did as he was told. He smirked when his feet planted firm on the tree trunk. He took one step, then two steps. But at the third one, the bark crumbled under his feet, and Sasuke fell down the tree. His face connected to the ground with a sickening 'thud'.

"See that, Sasuke?" Kakashi said in an amusing tone. "If you lose control of your chakra, you fall. The purpose of this exercise is to improve your chakra control. The better your chakra control is, the more effectively you can use your jutsu. Genjutsu requires good control of your chakra too, so if you want to learn Genjutsu, you have to improve your control first."

"But then… does that mean Naruto has the best chakra control among us?" Sakura questioned. Kakashi smiled.

"Not quite. Right now, it is the truth that Naruto has the best control, but with enough training, your control shall become better than him. Naruto is not someone suitable for precise chakra control."

Naruto pouted. "Hey, I'm not that bad!"

"Right, right. Well, if you're that good, how about you looking after your teammate for a while? I have some work to do."

And Kakashi flickered away without letting Naruto say a word. Naruto stared at the place Kakashi had just disappeared from for a while, then grumbled something sounded suspiciously like 'damn lazy bastard'.

* * *

Sasuke was frustrated. Sakura had got the technique at her first try. Meanwhile, his best was just ten steps up the trunk before he lost control and fell to the ground.

"Hey, dobe, give me some tip."

Naruto looked at Sasuke and sighed. Yeah, whatever timeline or age he was in, Sasuke was still a jerk.

"Sasuke," he started with a tone full of annoyance. "If you want someone to help you, you should stop using that tone. Who the hell do you think you are, my father?"

Sasuke bristled. "I am an Uchiha…"

"And how does that make you different from anyone?" Naruto cut him short with a sharp voice. "Greater men than you have gotten themselves killed because of that stupid 'I'm from a great clan' thing. Even if you are strong, there will always be someone in this world who is stronger than you. Can you defeat the Hokage? Can you defeat Kakashi-sensei? Hell, can you even defeat Iruka-sensei when he is serious? In this world, you are nothing yet, Sasuke. Do you ever feel that everyone in the village doesn't care about you and your clan? Well, sorry, it's not like everyone ignores you; it's that attitude of yours that make _you _ignore people, and people scare of you! Stop hiding behind your clan name and be a man!"

Anger started to boil in Sasuke's head. He opened his mouth, an insult ready to be thrown at the blond in front of him…

Then he faltered. Because he realized retorting only proved what Naruto said was true.

During the bell test, he couldn't even land a hit on Kakashi alone, even when the jonin was not fighting seriously. Even more so, he was humiliated by said jonin with a stupid trick. Even he himself understood that the gap between their ability was too great.

Since he was a child, his father had taught him that the Uchiha was always the strongest. He was proud of being born into the Uchiha clan, of bearing the Uchiha name and wearing the symbol of the clan on his back. But now looking back, he could see that despite bearing the name of his family, he was still just a weak genin. He was still just a grain of sand in this whole desert called the shinobi world.

And after what the Hokage had told him the previous day… He said that the fatal flaw of the Uchiha clan was their pride for power. He didn't want to believe it, but look at what the 'power of the Uchiha' had brought to his clan. They planned a coup on Konoha, and were massacred in the process. Could it be that he was right? Could it be that his pride of the clan name had made him forget who he really was?

"Fine," after a while, Sasuke grumbled begrudgingly. "Can you give me some advice?"

"Alright," Naruto smiled. He was happy that Sasuke decided to be nice for a change. It was just reluctant, but a change is still a change. "What do you feel when you focus your chakra?"

* * *

"Hey, my genin, how was the training going…?"

Kakashi's voice trailed off when he saw Sasuke and Sakura running up and down the tallest trees in the training ground just like walking on flat ground. And Naruto was looking at them from a lower branch, grinning cheekily while hanging himself upside down.

"Wow, you did a great job as a teacher after all. Maybe I'll let you be the sensei of the team for a while…" he joked.

Naruto just stared at him with a deadpan expression, while Sasuke and Sakura gasped in horror, and fell off the trees they were running up.

* * *

**A/N: There you go. This chapter is mainly about Team 7's first mission and some of their training.**

**This chapter is a bit short, but well, there is not much to say, you know.**

**The Wave arc will begin next chapter... with a twist! Stay tuned! And thank you guys for all the positive reviews!**


	7. Chapter 7: Returning to Wave!

**Chapter 7: Returning to Wave!**

Naruto was skipping on the street of Konohagakure.

Well, to be fair, he had done a lot of useful things during the last week.

He had completed his wind element training. Still not as good as it was during his time, but hey, it's just a week and he already got it to that level. And he was stuck in a ten-year-old body, so that was a plus.

He had managed to gain respect from Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi-sensei. Since after the tree climbing training, Kakashi-sensei hadn't called him a dead last, and Sakura hadn't punched him silly like before, except for when they were sparring, of course. Sure, Sasuke was still a jerk, but at least he had opened up to everyone in the team more than ever.

He had managed to make the old Hokage tell Sasuke the truth about the massacre of the Uchiha clan. Maybe it was the reason why Sasuke had mellowed out that much. And even jiji didn't look like a senile old man like he was before; he looked somewhat happier, and somehow… stronger. Naruto didn't understand why, but that couldn't be a bad sign, could it?

And he, together with his team, had managed to complete a lot of D-rank missions. Thanks to the shadow clones, anyway.

So there, what was the reason for him not to be in a very happy mood?

CRASH!

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

But despite how happy you were, you should have kept your eyes on the road while you're walking, Naruto.

Naruto rubbed his nose while wincing. That **hurt**. He snapped his head up, ready to throw an insult to the face of the bastard who rammed into him…

Then he stopped abruptly. Because he realized that the one who just crashed into him was Hinata.

The anger in his head was gone in an instant, replaced by honest concern. He jumped toward the fallen girl and shook her lightly.

"Hey, Hinata-chan… Hinata-chan, are you okay?"

The girl groaned meekly and opened her eyes, only to face the concerned blue eyes of her crush directly above her, staring straight into her white orbs.

_Ohmygodohmygodohmygod… I crashed into Naruto-kun… He is staring at me…_

Her face immediately heated up to a dangerous level. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and her consciousness started fading…

"Oh no you don't," Naruto cursed. He had almost forgotten about Hinata's strange habit. "Don't go fainting on me now. Wake up Hinata-chan! Wake up!" He slapped her cheek gently.

Hinata groggily opened her eyes again. And she saw Naruto's face, even closer to hers than before. She fainted again.

"Damn it!"

'_**Well, I don't know how to say this, but maybe it would be better if you GET YOUR DAMN FACE OFF HERS?!' **_Kurama snapped in annoyance. The boy was still as dense as always.

"Ah. Good point."

"Hey, what are you doing to Hinata?"

The voice from his back almost made Naruto jumped. He turned back, and realized he was facing Kiba. He smiled nervously.

"Ah… I just crashed into her a few minutes ago, and I was trying to get her back up. Then she just fainted like that." Then he realized the backpack on Kiba's back. He saw that Hinata was also wearing a similar one. "Hey, is your team going somewhere?"

"Ha! We're having a C-rank mission out of the village, so we have to prepare for it!" Kiba bragged. "A dead last like you will not going to have anything like that!"

Akamaru whined. He gave Naruto a look that could be understood as 'Sorry, Naruto-san'.

Naruto rolled his eyes. He had known Kiba for so long that he didn't care about his bragging habit anymore.

Behind them, Hinata groaned and opened her eyes. Again. Fortunately for her, there was no sign of Naruto's face near hers anymore.

But unfortunately for her, he was the first one who recognized that she was awake.

"Ah, Hinata-chan!" He exclaimed, his legs ready to leap towards her. Hinata snapped her eyes shut. She didn't want to be sent to the dreamland once more.

"What? Oh, come on!... Fine…"

Hinata opened her eyes one more time, and sweatdropped seeing Naruto talking to himself, while waving his hand around as if he was chasing some invisible mosquitoes.

Naruto started to sweat when he realized Hinata's stare.

"Crap, I said that out loud, did I?"

The two of them continued staring at each other awkwardly for a while. And maybe they would have stood there like that forever if the voice full of annoyance of Kiba hadn't rose from behind them.

"Oy, lovebirds, cut it out! We have a mission to do here!"

Hinata and Naruto immediately snapped back to reality, their faces both heated up.

_Lovebirds…? _Hinata had to concentrate every particle of her mind to keep herself from fainting again.

"So… good luck on your mission, Hinata-chan…" Naruto said lamely.

"O-okay… Thank you, N-naruto-kun…" Hinata stuttered back, her face was as red as a cherry now. "S-see you soon…"

Then she ran away like flying, leaving Kiba behind coughing like crazy in a smokescreen coming out from nowhere.

'_**Poor girl,' **_Saikyo commented in a sad tone.

'_**Yeah,' **_Chomei agreed. _**'Falling in love with a boy who is as dense as a rock…'**_

'_Hey!'_

* * *

"Jiji, we want a C-rank mission."

Sarutobi blinked. It's not like he was surprised, though. He had expected Naruto to ask for this, considering where and when he was from.

"I agree," Sasuke added. "No offense, but all those chores we have been doing since last week made me sick. I'm tired of seeing clients glaring at us when we arrive for the missions already."

Well, maybe all the glares were aimed at Naruto mainly, but still…

And they didn't know why Naruto deserved all those glares. Sure, he might be a prankster, but that didn't mean… Those glares… it's just… as if he was a monster.

What had Naruto done to them to make them hate him that much?

"Besides," Sakura chimed in. "A team has to complete at least five D-ranks before they can advance to C-ranks, right Hokage-sama? Well, Team 7 has fulfilled the minimum requirement!"

Sasuke smirked. "I didn't know you were interested in a C-rank too, Sakura."

Sakura just blushed. "Anything for you, Sasuke-kun!"

Yes, she was still a fangirl. Couldn't expect anyone to change completely in just a week, right? But she would get better. Hell, she would even have the potential to become a person of mass destruction, if she put her mind into it.

But that was the story of the future. Right now, the only thing whatever she was doing did was creeping Sasuke out completely.

"Well, I guess that's true…" the old Hokage scratched his head. "But I'm afraid the last C-rank mission of this week was taken by Team 8 yesterday. Maybe if you return next week, there will be a mission available for you. So then, how about you just do some more D-ranks while waiting?"

Team 7 groaned. Well, except for Kakashi, of course.

'_**That's weird.'**_

'_Hm? What's wrong, Kurama?'_

'_**As I remember, today is the day you received the mission to Wave, right?' **_the vixen wondered. _**'So there must be at least that mission available for you… Unless…' **_her eyes suddenly widened in realization.

Suddenly, the door to the mission control burst open.

"Hokage-sama! Team 8, led by jonin Kurenai Yuuhi requires reinforcement for their escort mission to Wave! During their mission, they were ambushed by the Demon Brothers of Kirigakure!"

Naruto's blood froze.

Dread twisted his stomach. Now he knew what happened to the mission to Wave. And worse, he knew exactly what was going to happen during that mission.

_Damn it! Why is this happening?_

It meant that team 8 would have to face Zabuza instead of them. During his time, Kakashi was known as the most powerful jonin of Konohagakure, even without the Mangekyo Sharingan. And he'd still had to struggle against Zabuza.

What if Kurenai-sensei couldn't hold her own against the Demon of Kirigakure…?

Kiba… Shino… _Hinata-chan_…

"Jiji! We will take that mission!"

The sudden outburst of Naruto shocked everyone in the room.

Iruka was the first one to revive from the shock. "Don't be a fool Naruto! That mission shall be declared at least B-rank, and there's no way you're qualified enough to take it!"

"Does it look like I FUCKING care?" Naruto snapped back in anger. He didn't even realize that he had just sworn in front of Iruka-sensei and everyone, but as he said, he didn't care. "Right now my friends are in danger, and you expect me to just sit back and watch them die? Someone had taught me before: Those who abandon their comrades in need are lower than trash. No matter what you say, I will not sit there and leave my friends alone to die!"

Iruka was almost thrown off balance. Not only because of Naruto's retort. Something about the boy was making him feel… uneasy. The Naruto in front of him right now was not the same Naruto he used to know. Never before had he seen Naruto so angry. And mature, too. Those words could not be the words of a mere newly graduated genin.

Looking at Naruto right now, Iruka couldn't help but imagining of a certain famous shinobi with spiky blond hair, just like Naruto.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was also shocked, but for a completely different reason. His visible eye locked at the frame of the blond in front of him, gears seemed to grind madly inside his head.

_How did he know those words…?_

"This is interesting. We will take the mission."

Sasuke's voice suddenly rose. In his face was a predator grin.

Sakura hesitated. "Uh… Sasuke-kun… I don't think our skill is enough for that kind of mission…"

"This mission is a good way to prove my strength," Sasuke insisted. "I want to see how good I am against a strong enemy."

Naruto looked back at Sasuke, a wave of gratitude swept through his stomach. He didn't expect the other boy to support him like that.

Although what Sasuke said did make him feel a bit on edge, he pushed the thought away. Right now, the mission was more important.

"Well… if Sasuke-kun said so… then I also have no problem," Sakura said after a deep breath.

Iruka turned to Kakashi for support. "Kakashi, say something! Team 7 is not good enough for this kind of mission!"

As he wished, Kakashi opened his mouth.

"Very well. Team 7 accepts the mission, Hokage-sama."

Iruka almost fainted. "But… but Kakashi…"

"Iruka, remember that those three are not your students anymore," Kakashi cut him short. "They are my soldiers now, and I know what to do with them. I believe they can handle whatever they are going to face in a mission like this. Besides," he gave an eye smile, "they have me with them."

Iruka seemed like he wanted to say some more, but he was cut short again, this time by the Hokage. "Very well Kakashi, I hereby assign the mission to give Team 8 reinforcement as Team 7's first official B-rank. I expect you to depart within one hour, without any delay. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama!"

Realizing the seriousness of the event, Sakura and Sasuke rushed out of the room back to their respective homes for preparation. Naruto was going to follow them before Kakashi's hand grasped his shoulder firmly.

"Naruto, we need to talk."

The eye smile from before was completely gone. Naruto gulped, a bead of sweat started to fall from his temple.

"Okay, sure… But I think we will have to tell jiji about this first. No, seriously, I won't try to run away."

* * *

An hour later, Team 7 assembled at the main gate of the village, fully equipped.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

Pakkun, Kakashi's personal ninken, appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Wassup Kakashi?" he raised his paw. "What kind of mission is it that you have to require my assistance?"

Kakashi's face was full of seriousness. "Pakkun, I need you to track down the position of Team 8, led by Kurenai. Can you do it?"

"Hm? Kurenai? Isn't that the beauty with red eyes that you like, Kakashi? Alright, wait a minute…"

Naruto snickered. "Kakashi-sensei likes Kurenai-sensei? Really?"

The glare of Kakashi immediately shut him up.

"Found them! They're in the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wave, and are moving at a slow speed! We can catch up with them in two hours if we go full speed!" the dog at his feet suddenly exclaimed. Kakashi nodded, and turned back to his genin.

"Alright everyone, this is the first high-ranked mission you are about the take part in," he said in an unusually serious tone. In his voice, there was no trace of his usual laziness. Instead, it was full of power and professionalism. "I have to tell you, this is not like any mission you have done before. It will likely include fighting, injuries, and even death. Are you sure you really want to do it? If you don't, you can turn back and go home right now, and I will not make you hold any responsibility."

No one budged. Kakashi nodded in satisfaction.

"Good. Now if everyone is ready… GO!"

The command echoed through the woods around, and the four shinobi and their dog took off.

* * *

Kurenai cursed inwardly while struggling to hold her breath inside her assailant's Water Prison.

Since their departing from Konoha, she had felt something very wrong was going to happen during their mission. And after meeting the Demon Brothers, her dreaded feeling was proven to be true. And she had made the terrible mistake of allowing the mission to continue, though she had also sent a letter requesting reinforcement back to Konoha.

She just didn't expect to run into Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, of all people.

Since the start of their battle, the difference in their power had been proven to be too much. As a Genjutsu specialist, her other skills couldn't hope to compare to those of Zabuza.

And now look at what that devil had done. Shino was lying on the ground, his kikai insect hive completely exhausted. Kiba and Akamaru were smashed into a tree nearby, with Akamaru unconscious, and Kiba holding his ribs in pain. And she was trapped inside this water sphere, waiting for death.

The only defense of their client right now was Hinata. The girl's Byakugan were activated, but her limbs were trembling like crazy.

"I must admit, you are not called the Genjutsu Mistress of Konohagakure for nothing, Kurenai Yuuhi. But even that, you are still no match for me."

A normal human could only hold her breath for about three minutes. If she can't do anything to get out of the water, she will be drowned.

Kurenai's body was screaming out in protest. It had reached its limit, and all muscles and organs inside her was convulsing under the pressure and lack of air. Her consciousness was gradually slipping away.

"Now, you'll stay there quietly when I kill the bridge builder."

Kurenai could only watch helplessly when the water clone of Zabuza took its form and started walking towards the client and her genins, sword raised high.

The reinforcement didn't arrive in time.

It's over. There's no way they could escape now. They would all be killed.

She had failed as a jonin sensei…

The gigantic cleaver was brought down in a deadly arc.

….

And it was stopped dead in its way with a loud 'CLANG'.

Never before had Kurenai felt so relieved hearing the sound of steel clashing against steel.

_Thank goodness. Reinforcement has finally arrived._

Then everything went dark around her.

* * *

Hinata was terrified.

The truth is, she is by no means a weak fighter. With her Byakugan and Juuken, she can kill almost anyone she wants with just a quick slap to their chest. And her speed and flexibility are nothing to be underestimated, either. With all those skills, she definitely has the potential to become one of the most deadly kunoichi in the world.

But that's only if she wants to.

Hinata hates fighting. Being a meek and gentle girl, she doesn't want to hurt anything, or anyone, even if it is her enemy. Because of that, despite being in the Hyuuga clan, a clan specializes in murdering people with their finger pokes of doom, her grade in taijutsu was just mediocre comparing to other students during her Academy time.

Because of that, everyone in the clan laughs at her, and even her own father despises her, calling her 'the failure of Hyuuga clan'.

And because of that, she is the weakest link in Team 8's formation.

And right now she was trembling like crazy when the masked assassin descended at her with his giant cleaver raising high.

"Sorry little girl. I don't like killing children, but you're in my way. So you're going to die now."

She closed her eyes, waiting for the consequence.

The blade was brought down on her head.

She heard Kiba screaming her name, Shino grunting in pain, and footsteps coming from behind her.

Spiky blond hair flashed through her mind.

_Naruto-kun… I'm sorry…_

A loud 'CLANG' echoed through her ears, and she suddenly felt her body being lifted off the ground. She snapped her eyes open, only to see that all she could see was the spiky blond hair she had just imagined.

"Sorry Hinata-chan, am I late?"

* * *

Team 7 had arrived in time.

Yeah, it was Kakashi who jumped out to block the sword of the Zabuza clone right before it chopped Hinata in half and destroyed it with a quick slash of his kunai. And it was Naruto, well, more exactly a clone of him, who grabbed the girl and jumped away from the battlefield.

It would have been an awesome heroic princess rescuing scene which can only be seen in cliché shoujo anime… had Naruto carried Hinata in some other way rather than a fireman's lift.

Well, can't blame him; he is Naruto anyway. Naruto is always an idiot when it comes to romance.

"Go die in hell, author!"

Did I tell you not to break the fourth wall, Naruto? And If I die, you will not exist anymore.

"Well, you're not my creator anyway!"

But I'm the one writing this story.

"Ah, touché."

* * *

Zabuza sneered when looking at his new opponent.

"Ah, Kakashi of the Sharingan. The man who has copied over one thousand jutsu. Such an honor of me to face someone as famous as you."

"Zabuza Momochi, known as Demon of the Hidden Mist," Kakashi answered. "I have to ask you to release the woman you're trapping inside your Water Prison, or else I'll have to kill you." He finished, and pulled his hitai-ate up, revealing his Sharingan.

"Oh? I'd like to see you try," Zabuza laughed, and squeezed his hand a bit. Inside the ball of water, Kurenai gasped in pain, air bubbles poured out of her mouth at a dangerous pace. At this rate she would die of asphyxiation in a minute.

"Approach me, and the woman will die immediately. If you don't, she will die in a few minutes. Now which way do you choose, Kakashi of the Sharingan?" Zabuza taunted, and Kakashi gritted his teeth.

_Hostage… Damn it… I won't be able to save Kurenai and defeat him at the same time… What should I do now…?_

"Neither!"

_What?_

A fuuma shuriken flew out of the forest behind them, aiming at Zabuza's face. Of course, Zabuza caught it easily with his free hand.

"Hah! As if such a silly trick of some snot nosed genin could even touch me!"

Then the shuriken turned into Naruto, who started dogpiling him with clones. A lot of clones.

"What… Wha… What the…? Get off me, brat!"

The Naruto clones just grinned, before grabbing his arms and legs, trying to push Zabuza down into the water below him with all their combined weight.

"DAMN YOOOUUUUU!" After a while, Zabuza had enough. His chakra exploded violently, throwing all the Naruto clones away in a gust. He reached out his vacant hand, grabbing the handle of his sword and swung hard, slamming at the real Naruto and sending the boy flying like a baseball. The blond boy hit the ground with a loud "thud", and some sickening cracks echoed through the air. Smirking behind his bandage, Zabuza formed a one-handed seal, intending to mold chakra to form a Water Clone to finish the boy off…

…Only for a fist to drill itself into his face. This time, it was Zabuza who was sent flying, his hand were ripped away forcefully from the Water Prison. Without its chakra source, the ball of water melted away, releasing Kurenai who was nearly dead inside it.

Holding the unconscious woman in his hand, Kakashi turned back to Zabuza, who was now struggling to get his body out of the water. Killing intent blasting out of his body was so massive it seemed to be visible like a raging flame.

"I'll show you Zabuza," he said coldly, "that **no one** is gonna mess with Kakashi Hatake's students and get away with it."

* * *

Two advices for you: Do not try to get on Kakashi's nerves when he is angry.

And do not, **ever in your life**, try to kill his students. Especially when the student is Naruto Uzumaki.

If you want to know why, ask Zabuza. He'll tell you what it feels to be curbstomped by the Sharingan user. And being blasted in the face by a giant fire hose in the form of a dragon is only the tip of the iceberg.

The fact that Kakashi wasn't stuck inside the Water Prison for about ten minutes with his Sharingan out wastefully didn't help Zabuza in any way.

For the sake of underage readers, pregnant women, elders with heart problems, and ridiculously cute critters, the author would prefer to be excused from describing this fight thoroughly in this story due to its brutality.

If Haku hadn't saved him in time by piercing his neck with senbon to shut his body down temporarily, he would have been murdered for real.

The masked fake hunter-nin landed on the ground in front of them, and turned to check up on Zabuza's seemingly dead body. Then he turned back to the group and bowed.

"Thank you for your assistance, Konoha-nin. I've searched for him for a few months, and now I can finally finish my mission."

"You're one of Kirigakure's hunter-nin, right?" Kakashi asked. Being too focus on his own battle, he hadn't noticed the existence of the newly arrived shinobi until now. The hunter-nin nodded.

"Yes, and since my mission has been completed, I have to dispose of this body. It contains too many secrets, and I cannot let it fall into possession of other villages. Farewell."

And the hunter-nin flickered away together with the body. Kakashi's eyes narrowed, but then he sighed and pulled his hitai-ate down, covering his Sharingan up. The battle was over, and there was no reason to worry the genin anymore today, after what they had been suffered.

"You also noticed it, right Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi almost jumped when he heard Naruto's quiet whisper right next to him. He nodded quietly, understanding what the blond wanted to say.

"Then why didn't you go after them?"

Kakashi sighed. "I'm almost out of chakra. Besides, Kurenai and her team need some rest after what happened today. And what about you, Naruto? I heard some nasty cracks from your body over there."

"Nah, I'm fine. At least this time you're not unconscious, sensei," Naruto chuckled.

"Well, I will be if we do not have something to eat and a bed to rest soon," Kakashi smiled back. "So how about you go and help the other? It might be better if we arrive at our client's house before sunset."

Naruto nodded, and started going back to the others, who was now busy with Kurenai and other members of Team 8, but not before taking a quick glance at the end of the trail again.

_Just wait for me. This time I will not let anyone of you die. Believe it._

* * *

**A/N: History has started to change! This time with Team 8 around, will everything be the same as before?**

**Kakashi has become serious and badass. **

**And yeah, NaruHina. This is, you know, one of the only two couples which seem to be canon besides ShikaTema. Seriously, I don't know if there is any man who doesn't fall in love for real with a girl who risked her own life to save his ass. So there, please don't flame me if you don't like this pairing.**

**Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8: Preparation

**A/N: It seems like many people hate the NaruHina pairing. But don't worry, it's not the official pairing... yet. The truth is, I don't plan on having romance as one of the main themes of this story, because I'm horrible at romantic things... just like Naruto :3**

**Now, on with the story! **

**Oh, and Naruto and all of its elements including the characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Preparation**

Tsunami was horrified when a bunch of people she didn't know stumbled at her front door, all looked like they had just crawled out of a minefield.

"By Kami! What in the world had just happened?" she exclaimed in disbelief, slapping a hand to her mouth. But everyone, well, maybe almost everyone, was too exhausted to answer her question.

Finally, Tazuna said, after catching his breath.

"Tsunami, these are the ninja escorting me. Please treat them properly. We've been through a very hard day."

* * *

"Um… How is Kurenai-sensei, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi looked at the timid Hyuuga and smiled.

"She'll be fine. She's drained herself out, but nothing a few days of rest cannot fix. Right now she's sleeping, so don't disturb her."

The girl let out a sigh in relief. "Thank goodness…"

"Oh, and how're your teammates doing?" Kakashi remembered. "I think they were hurt pretty bad out there."

"They… they're fine, I think…" Hinata shook her head. "Shino-kun's bugs are exhausted… and Kiba-kun and Akamaru… they are quite… beaten up… but I think… they're not hurt too much… At least… no bone is broken…"

"Ah, that's great," Kakashi's facial muscles relaxed. "Then let's go check up on them, shall we? I don't know much about medical jutsu, but I can still help patching them up."

For the first time in the day, Hinata smiled.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei!"

And she was able to complete a sentence without stuttering, too.

* * *

"Well, I hate to tell you this, but I suspect that Zabuza is still alive."

Kakashi's words were nothing less than a bomb dropped in the middle of the quiet room.

"What do you mean sensei?" Sakura blinked. Kakashi nodded solemnly.

"Senbon is the type of weapon with the lowest probability of killing the target. Furthermore, I didn't have the time to check Zabuza's body to ensure that he was dead. And hunter-nin's job is usually to destroy the body of a ninja right in the battlefield to ensure that secrets in that body don't fall into enemies' hand. In fact, I've never seen a hunter-nin carrying a dead body away like that. Connecting all those evidences… yeah, there is a very high possibility that Zabuza is still alive."

For a while, the room was silent. And by silent, I meant **completely, utterly silent. **

There was absolutely no sound. Even the sound of breathing was absent. It seemed like time itself had stopped during that moment.

Then total pandemonium broke out.

"AHHHH! ZABUZA IS STILL ALIVE! WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" screamed Kiba hysterically, while running around the room like there was a train chasing after him. Sasuke and Shino cringed at the same time and jumped out of their seat, both ready to defend themselves with whatever they had: Sasuke with weapons, and Shino with his newly revived kikai bugs. Sakura's and Hinata's faces were as white as chalk, and they started to tremble uncontrollably. It seemed they could faint if anyone touched them on the shoulders at that moment.

Kakashi sweatdropped. "Uh, you guys, I didn't say that…"

Screams cut him short.

Had it not been for the fact that almost everyone was scared shitless, the scene in the room right now would have been incredibly funny.

"CALM THE FUCK DOWN ALL OF YOU!"

After five minutes, Kakashi had enough. He exploded, and everyone in the room cringed. Yes, even Naruto.

Realizing that he had just spewed out profanities in front of the genin, Kakashi cleared his throat awkwardly and continued.

"Well, as I have just said, Zabuza is still alive. And together with him is the mysterious ninja who rescued him. The problem is, we don't know how strong that ninja really is, and what kind of ability he… or she… has. And Kurenai is still unconscious, and might be unable to fight in a few days. But luckily for us, the wounds of Zabuza were also very severe, and I think he cannot show his face in less than a week and a half. Because of that, starting from tomorrow, I'll give all of you training to improve your abilities in case Zabuza attacks again, which no doubt will happen in a few more days. Together with that, we will take turn guarding our client when he goes to the bridge for work. Do you understand?"

Everyone nodded. Kakashi's face relaxed. "Good. Now everyone, go to sleep immediately. We have much work to do in the morning."

When Kakashi left the room, Sakura whispered. "Wow, Kakashi-sensei just got serious. I can't believe I would live to see the day he's not lazy."

Poor Sakura. She had underestimated the hearing ability of a jonin. And Kakashi definitely didn't leave the room far enough to _not _hear what she had just said.

* * *

The next morning, the Konoha group, minus Kurenai, of course, assembled in a clearing in the forest behind the house.

"All right, before we start training, I need to know what you can do first. I'm not your jonin sensei, so I cannot get a grasp of your ability yet. You first, Shino."

The glassed boy answered. "I can use my clan's insect jutsu."

"And?" Kakashi nodded, waiting for the boy to continue. But he didn't. The excitement of Kakashi withered away.

"You don't know any other jutsu except your clan jutsu?"

The boy shook his head slightly. "I can do basic academy ones, too. My chakra is mainly used to feed and grow my hive."

Kakashi sighed. "Figures. Kiba?"

"Yeah! I have been trained in my clan's unique taijutsu! And I got Akamaru, too!" the dog boy hollered, and Akamaru whined in agreement. "Oh, and I also know basic academy jutsu," he added.

Kakashi nodded. "That will do. And you, Hinata?"

The timid girl started hesitantly. "Um… I… I have my Byakugan… and I know the basic of Juuken… but I'm not very good…"

"I see," Kakashi nodded in understanding, "as expected from a Hyuuga. So that was the idea of Kurenai when she chose a team with two taijutsu users who are only capable of using their clan's techniques, and one supporter using only insect ninjutsu… This is gonna be a problem…"

"Why is that, sensei?" Sakura asked in confusion. Kakashi sighed.

"Because Team 8 was selected by Kurenai to be a reconnaissance team, Sakura. And the role of a reconnaissance team in combat is different from that of an assault team. Usually, during battles, the mission of a reconnaissance team is to confirm the location of enemies, report it back to the assault squads and then retreat quietly without engaging. Because of that, their battle capabilities are mostly lower than other teams… well, maybe higher than a team full of medics, but still…"

"Hey! How dare you underestimate us? We're much better than that loser over there!" Kiba barked in rage, while pointing at Naruto, who 'Hey!' in protest. Even Hinata seemed to be a bit upset at the jonin's remark.

"I didn't mean it like that, Kiba. What I meant here is, as a reconnaissance team, you are not the type of shinobi who are suitable for frontal assault," Kakashi countered with a professional voice. "Hinata and Shino, you two possess jutsu which are capable of silent assassination. And you, Kiba, you have the ability to pinpointing your enemy's location precisely in the shadow and finish them off in one strike. Those skills allow you to be specialists in scouting and assassination in close range. But against enemies with heavy mid-ranged and long-ranged firepower, such as Zabuza, you don't have any skills which can be used against them. Am I right about that?"

The jonin's statement hit bullseye. Having nothing else to say, Kiba grumbled unhappily.

"Well, that's true…"

"But… does it mean that… that you… you can't train us…?" Hinata stammered; her eyes were full of worry. Kakashi scratched his cheek.

"Well, not quite. It's true that I cannot turn you into an assault team in such a short time, but right now I can train you in some basic skills that will help you survive in a battle. Now, have any of you learn the tree walking exercise?"

Hinata and Shino raised their hands. Kakashi nodded. "Good. Then while Kiba train on that skill, a shadow clone of me will train you two in your movement and reflex. And the real me will go with Sasuke and Naruto to guard Tazuna."

"Sensei, what about me?" Sakura raised her voice, confused as her name wasn't mentioned.

"Oh, don't worry Sakura. Your basics are not bad. Even your chakra control is perfect, considering you have completed both the tree climbing and water walking exercises so quickly. However, you have two major weaknesses, which is your fragile body and lack of stamina. Therefore, in your training, I will mainly push your body to the limit to improve it. Which reminds me…" Kakashi bit his finger, then weaved through hand seals. "Summoning Jutsu!"

Smoke filled the air, but when it dispersed, not only Pakkun, but a whole pack of hunting dogs appeared in front of the group. And their teeth were dripping with saliva.

"Sakura," Kakashi gave her an eye smile. "You'd better start running now. Oh, and you guys," he told the dogs, "don't stop chasing her until I tell you to."

The poor girl could only scream and run for her life when the pack of predators leapt at her, fangs bared.

All the remaining genin couldn't help sharing the same thought.

_Kakashi-sensei is such a sore loser…_

* * *

"This sucks."

"Yeah. At least Sakura got to train."

Sasuke and Naruto were sulking at the side of the huge construction which was going to be the great bridge.

Yeah, they understood that because they're the better ones in the group, they should leave the training opportunity to the others who were not as good as them.

But this… this was just torture. Never in his life had Naruto felt so bored.

Yeah, in his timeline, Naruto had never had to go for a shift in the construction zone. Whenever his teammates went for it, Naruto would have either gone for training or lain unconscious in Tazuna's house. And that made it even worse.

Sometimes being too good will just come back and bite you in the ass.

"AHHHHH! THAT'S ITTTT!" Naruto finally snapped. Completely lost his patience, he bolted up, and kicked a boulder next to him.

CRACK

"AHHH! FUUUCCCCCKKKKK! MY TOES!"

Sasuke face-palmed, shaking his head. "Idiot…"

"There are other ways more effective to entertain yourself rather than smashing your foot against rocks, Naruto," Kakashi said amusedly. He had just arrived in time to see Naruto break his toes on the rock. The boy glared at him, jumping around on one leg.

"Oh yeah? We're definitely not going to read your porn to amuse ourselves, thank you very much. Ouch."

Kakashi sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you that it was not mere porn? And anyway, you don't have to always move your body around to train. Here."

He pulled out a piece of chakra paper and gave it to Sasuke. The Uchiha boy blinked. "What am I supposed to do with that?"

"Channel chakra into it. It will show what element your chakra is."

Sasuke blinked again. "But I know I have fire already."

"Well, who knows," the jonin smiled. "Just try it; maybe we'll have a surprise."

Sasuke looked at him incredulously, but complied anyway. The paper crumpled into a ball, and then caught fire until it became a pile of ash at his feet.

Kakashi blinked. "Fire and lightning. Two of the most destructive elements, and very powerful too… Well, genin usually do not have this many when they've just graduated. But I'm not surprised, considering what Naruto has."

"Huh? What element do you have, dobe?"

Naruto answered nonchalantly. "Oh, I have wind, water, earth, fire and lightning."

Sasuke's eyes bugged out. "What? You have all **five**? How is that possible?"

"Dunno," Naruto shrugged, "it's just kinda happened."

"Damn it… How could you be so powerful? It's not fair!" Sasuke gritted his teeth.

"Says the one who is going to have the uber hax Sharingan with the ability to copy every jutsu, seeing everything in slow motion and blah blah blah whatever more I don't know," Naruto snorted in retort, and Sasuke winced.

"Well, you got a point… but still…"

If Naruto hadn't known better, he could have sworn that Sasuke was pouting.

"All right, you two," Kakashi grabbed the boys' shoulders and turned them back to the story. "The fact that you have natural affinities from birth doesn't mean much as you advance in your career. You can even gain all of them if you train yourself hard enough. In fact, the Third Hokage was born with fire element, but during his reign as Hokage, he mastered all five affinities and was incredibly competent with all of them."

"Wow, really?" Naruto blinked in surprise. That was a piece of information he hadn't known. "I didn't expect jiji to be that strong."

"He isn't known as 'The God of Shinobi' for nothing, Naruto," Kakashi eye smiled. "But enough talking. Sasuke, you're lucky that my main affinity is lightning, so I already have the training program of yours in my mind. Naruto, how's your wind element training going?"

"Hehe, piece of cake. Watch," Naruto flashed his trademarked foxy grin. He grabbed a leaf on the ground and channeled his chakra through it. The leaf split in half.

"Hey, wait a second," Sasuke suddenly asked. In his voice, there was a hint of anger. "Why did Naruto have elemental training before me?"

"Oh, it's because he asked me first," Kakashi answered. Sasuke fumed.

"Again? Why do I need to ask for everything I want?"

"And why do you think you don't, Sasuke?" Kakashi countered with a sharp voice. "In this world, you're in no position to order people to give you what you want. People will only hand you things because they want to. If you want something, you have to ask for it first, and wait to see if they're willing to give it to you or not. If they aren't, scram. You don't have the right to force people to hand things to you. No one has."

Sasuke winced again. Those words were just like what Naruto had told him the other day.

Naruto slapped him on the back. "Oh, chill out, teme. At least you were properly trained in fire element already, so if there was anyone who should be jealous, it would be me, not you."

"Touché…" Sasuke muttered.

"All right, now as all the disputes have been settled, let's get to training, shall we?" Kakashi smiled. "Sasuke, get a leaf on that tree over there and try to make it wrinkled with your chakra alone, like… this," he grabbed a leaf and channeled chakra through it. It crumpled. "And Naruto, since you have completed the first step already, and we have no waterfall here…"

"I've done waterfall cutting, too, but it doesn't seem very good." Naruto interrupted. Kakashi's visible eye widened.

"That fast? Very well, if it comes to this…"

He looked around, and pointed below the construction zone.

"Try to cut the river in half, and we'll see."

Naruto followed his finger, and sweatdropped.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

* * *

Sasuke and Naruto pushed the door open, only to find the others lying half dead behind it.

"Holy shit," Naruto gaped. "Did Zabuza attack you guys?"

"Kakashi-sensei is worse than Zabuza," Kiba muttered, and smashed his face on the ground. He was too exhausted to even keep speaking.

"What did he make you do?" Sasuke raised his eyebrow. Only Sakura had enough energy left to groan.

"Ten kilometres of running nonstop, then one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, and one hundred squats. Continuously."

"Ooh," Naruto winced. "That's brutal. Hope you won't lose all your hair because of that. Ah, but I think we should stop talking; sensei's coming."

At that moment, Kakashi and Tazuna stepped into the room.

"Ah, I see that you all survived. Good," Kakashi nodded with a smile. "Then tomorrow we will continue, and if possible, I will push it another level further."

Everyone groaned.

From that day onwards, Sakura couldn't decide that she hated Kakashi more when he was lazy or when he finally became serious.

* * *

"Why do you try so hard? You're all gonna be killed."

Everyone lifted their eyes off their dinner to see Inari scowling at the door. Tsunami exclaimed in relief.

"Inari! Where have you been? I thought something happened to you…"

"What do you mean when you say we're gonna be killed, brat?" Kiba asked. "The next time we face that masked bastard, we'll show them who is boss! Right, Akamaru?" The white dog barked in agreement.

"Hmph," Inari sneered bitterly. "No one can beat Gato. No matter how hard you train, you're still no match for his men. When facing the strong, the weak will only end up getting killed."

"Whatever, kid," Naruto yawned. "After this training, the weak ones will no longer be us anymore. And we will save the Land of Wave from Gato."

"Shut up! Stop talking like you understand about this country!" Inari screamed; tears started to roll down his cheeks. "You ninjas are always goofing around; you don't know how hard life can be! Stop trying to be heroes! There is nothing as a hero anyway!"

Everyone suddenly felt an ominous flare of rage. Naruto stood up, and walked towards Inari.

His eyes were red and slitted.

SLAP!

Inari was sent flying and slammed into the wall.

It's needless to say how surprised and shocked everyone in the room was upon Naruto's sudden outburst. Sakura bolted up from her seat.

"Naruto! Why did you…?"

Naruto glared back at her, and Sakura flinched under the gaze of her teammate. Never before had she seen Naruto so angry. Even the rage in the conference room two days ago was nothing comparing to this.

"Don't worry, I held back." Naruto said coldly. Then he turned back to Inari. "You know what, brat? If you as well as everyone of this village keep that attitude, you will be stuck with Gato for at least half a century more. Posing as the star of the tragedy and crying all day won't help you taking down tyrants. And about that latter statement…" he growled dangerously, "…don't ever think that only you have a hard life. There are many people in this world who have hells of a life comparing to yours. At least you still have a mother and a grandfather who care for you."

Then he kicked the door open. Hinata called after him worriedly.

"Wait, Naruto-kun… your dinner…"

"Sorry Hinata-chan, but I lost my appetite. I need to let my stress loose for a while. Don't go look for me."

And with that, Naruto walked out of the house into the darkness, leaving behind eleven pairs of eyes which were all staring at his disappearing back.

* * *

"ORYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Tree bark flew everywhere after another failed attempt of Naruto's other signature jutsu slammed into the trunk.

Naruto slumped down on the ground. His chakra reserve was considerably larger than that of even his mature body, but it wasn't unlimited. After so many failures of using the Rasengan, he had begun to feel the burden of chakra exhaustion. And pain was wrecking through his body as if a truck had just hit him.

_Damn it… After all those chakra control practices, I still can't use it properly… And why does my body hurt so much…?_

Those words of Inari… Just remembering about it sent pain through his heart. Now, hearing it directly from the boy's mouth again, it hurt even worse. He knew that the boy didn't really mean it, but still…

"Even if you're upset, you shouldn't exhaust yourself like that, Naruto. We don't want you to lie unconscious during the whole mission, right?"

He didn't have to turn back to know the owner of that voice.

"I told you that you shouldn't go look for me, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi stepped into the clearing. He looked around. "Rasengan, huh? So what you said about coming from the future is not a farce, I see."

"I told you," Naruto smirked tiredly.

Kakashi sat down on the ground beside him. "However, using such a jutsu in a large scale will wear you down very quickly. Just take it easy and have a break, will you?"

He patted the ground, and Naruto let his body fall on the bed of grass.

"It's hard to believe I could ever see you guys once more," he mouthed. Kakashi smiled sadly. He understood how hard it had been to Naruto when Inari barked those words at his face, considering he had been from an apocalyptic future where all his precious people had been killed right in front of him. He started, trying to change the subject.

"So… how am I in the future?"

Naruto chuckled. "Still a lazy one, and a porn addict, but you could be serious when the situation needs you to. You have… well, had, I don't know… the Mangekyo Sharingan, with a jutsu called Kamui which can open a black hole on the air and suck everything into it. Well, during my time, someone told me that you had to kill someone close to you to achieve it, but no, I don't think you're someone who did something like that to your friend. And…"

He couldn't finish his sentence. He didn't want to remind himself again how Kakashi was killed by the hand of Madara.

Kakashi grimaced. He already knew that he had the Mangekyo Sharingan, and he also knew exactly who he had killed to get it. And that's the reason why he had never wanted to use it, despite whatever powers it might bring him. His lack of chakra to use the technique even once didn't help, either.

"I'm not as good as you think, Naruto," he said solemnly. "During one mission, my teammate Rin was captured by Kirigakure and turned into the Sanbi's jinchuriki. They planned to unleash the beast in the middle of Konoha to destroy it from the inside. And to protect the village…" Kakashi's voice quivered, "…she plunged herself right into my Chidori. I couldn't stop… I killed her…"

Kakashi's voice shook and died. Naruto's eyes widened. All those times… he had never known… never bothered to ask…

'_**So that's the reason why Obito flipped out like that,' **_Kurama said. She was also shocked by Kakashi's story. _**'He must have seen that happen somehow...'**_

'_**No. That's impossible.'**_

Everyone inside Naruto's head turned to Isobu, the one who had just raised his voice. Beads of sweat were rolling down his face, and his eyes were full of realization. In beast form, his face was covered with hard shell, so they couldn't see its color; but they're sure that if they could, it would be covered in white.

'_**What do you mean, Iso-kun?' **_Chomei asked. Isobu nodded grimly.

'_**I've never had a female jinchuriki in my life. There is no way someone can seal me into a jinchuriki without me knowing about it. Kakashi and Obito had both been tricked.'**_

If the news that Zabuza was alive was a bomb, the information Isobu had just brought them would be just like a nuclear warhead being detonated in the middle of Naruto's mindscape.

'_**Damn it,' **_Gyuki cursed. _**'It must have been that aloe vera guy of Akatsuki. People said that his transformation was perfect and couldn't be detected even by doujutsu. If that's the case, making some clones of that Rin girl and some Mist cannon fodders would just be a child's play to him."**_

Naruto's face went white in shock and anger.

'_Kurama, can you check the surrounding for eavesdroppers?'_

'_**Huh? There's no one around here except for you two… but…' **_the vixen's eyes widened. _**'You're going to tell him.'**_

'_I have to do it. There is no reason to keep Kakashi-sensei mourning about something he didn't do.'_

'_**What? Are you crazy?' **_Shukaku protested. _**'There's no telling what will happen if someone else knows that information! If the Akatsuki knows about it…' **_

'_**I believe in onii-chan.'**_

This time, every head turned to Saikyo, the one who had just blurted out those words.

'_**It's just like Utakata-niichan again…' **_Saikyo hung her head. _**'It's because of something I did that he couldn't live a day without regret… I don't want something like that to happen again…'**_

All the other Tailed Beasts winced. They had all known about the accident of Utakata in the shared mindscape before, and they understood how their little sister had felt when the jinchuriki she loved and respected as a brother almost killed himself because of something he hadn't even known about.

'_**You're right…' **_Gyuki finally nodded. _**'I think leaving him in the dark will cause more harm than benefit.'**_

'_**Heh, just leave it to the little sister to come up with the brilliant idea,' **_Shukaku chuckled. Saikyo blushed.

'_Alright, then…' _Naruto inhaled sharply. "Kakashi-sensei, there is something I need to tell you…"

Silence filled the air for a while after Naruto told Kakashi the story. Then, screams of bloody murder could be heard echoing through the forest.

00000

At the same time, a certain Uchiha who was sitting in the realm of the dead, waiting to be revived suddenly cringed.

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CANNOT GO INTO TAILED BEAST MODE?!"

It was almost a week since the ambush in the forest.

Everyone was progressing nicely. Sasuke had quickly gotten the hang of his lightning element, and was now struggling on the second step of his training. Sakura's stamina, strength, chakra reserve and taijutsu had all improved drastically thanks to the brutal training sessions of Kakashi, and now she was starting on her chakra nature, which was checked by Kakashi and identified as earth. Kurenai had mostly recovered, and she was now training Team 8 in ambush tactics, as well as improving their teamwork and their clan abilities even more. It could be said that Team 8 would be a match for Team 7 when it came to fighting as a team right now, if they went all out.

Therefore, the declaration of Kurama to Naruto was nothing less than a hammer to his head.

"**Sheesh, could you be a little bit louder? There might be someone fifty miles away who didn't hear you,"**Kurama answered sarcastically.

"We're in my mind," Naruto deadpanned. Kurama snorted.

"**And I didn't say you couldn't;" **she added,** "it's just your body cannot handle something like the Tailed Beast Mode at the moment."**

"Why?"Naruto blinked. "I've used your chakra for a very long time, haven't I?"

"**Using our chakra is one thing, but going full Tailed Beast is different from just a little chakra, Naruto-kun,"**Matatabi said. **"The full beast form is basically using all of our chakra at the same time to create an avatar of ourselves using the body of the jinchuriki as a base. Because of that, the strain each time you go full form is incredibly great. A human's body is not strong enough to handle all those chakra at the same time, you know. That's why jinchuriki only go full form as a last resort, when their enemies are so powerful they cannot fight them with normal skills. With your child body right now, going full form means crippling your body from chakra overload."**

"**That, and there is another reason,"**Kokuoh chimed in. **"In order to go full form, the beast and the jinchuriki have to perfectly synchronize their minds together. With Kurama, you might have reached that state already, considering how long she had been sealed inside you… but with us, you will need some more time before we can achieve perfect unison. Without that, there is only one way to go full beast, which is letting us take over your body completely, which will kill you."**

Naruto shuddered. "So that's why Ero-sennin only focused on training my body during those three years…"Then he pouted. "But that's not fair… That means I cannot use the Tailed Beast Bomb! What if some powerful enemies show up? How can I beat them without your ultimate skill?"

Matatabi glared at Gyuki. _**"**_**You just have to go and tell him that, did you?'**

Gyuki scratched his head sheepishly.

"**Don't listen to what that musclehead Gyuki said, Naruto,"**Kokuoh said. _**"**_**Sure, the Tailed Beast Bomb is a very powerful attack, but that's not our greatest skill. The ultimate power we Tailed Beasts grant a jinchuriki is the ability we inherited from the Juubi, Creation of All Things."**

Naruto's face twisted into an odd look. "Eh… what is that Create of… whatever… thing?"

"**We can create things from our chakra!" **Chomei chirped happily.

"**Yeah, that's basically it,"**Kokuoh nodded in agreement. **"It's the ability that allows us to create things from chakra alone. Remember the staff and those orb things Obito created when he first created the incomplete Juubi? We can do something similar to that. We can help our jinchuriki to create wings to fly, gills to swim underwater, ink to write, and even weapons to fight with. They're not as potent as the weapons the Juubi creates, but they're still very useful." **

Then the horse chuckled. **"Ironically, it is also the technique that created us in the first place, you know. Our Father, the Sage of Six Paths, is a master of this technique. He can create almost anything with only his imagination and chakra."**

If anyone looked at Naruto's eyes at the moment, they would surely find stars sparkling in them.

Well, in his mindscape, anyway. He's meditating in the outside world.

"So cool… Can you teach me that, please? Pleasepleaseplease…"

Everyone sweatdropped.

"**Hey, leave your study until later; Haku's behind you."**

Naruto's eyes snapped open, right in time to grab the extending arms next to his head and flipped the person behind him over his head, slamming the slim body to the ground.

"Kyah?!"

The kimono of his assailant was flipped open, revealing a pair of small white panties with **absolutely **no bulge under it.

"Oh," was the only smart word Naruto could blurt out before a scream pierced his ears and a hand landed on his right cheek.

'_**Real smooth Naruto, real smooth…' **_Kurama and the other girls face-pawed while the boys laughed their asses off.

* * *

After some more cliché introduction scenes, Haku and Naruto was sitting on the ground facing each other. Both their faces were bright red.

'_**You shouldn't have done something like that to a girl, Naruto-kun,' **_Matatabi scolded Naruto. He snapped back in embarrassment.

'_Oh, come on! The last time we met, she told me she was a boy! How should I know that she really is a girl?'_

'_**Yeah, yeah, I know,' **_the cat waved him off. _**'But anyway, didn't you owe her an apology?'**_

Naruto sighed. Shaking his head to clear the image of Haku's panties from his head ('Damn you, author! I'm not a pervert!'), he inhaled deeply, and started.

"Um, Haku-chan… I'm sorry for doing something like that to you… You know, you were just too quiet, and I… well…"

"It's okay, Naruto-kun," Haku replied. Her face was still having a red tint. "I just didn't expect to find someone here in the forest at this time. You know, you were just sitting there with your eyes closed… I thought you were sleeping, and…"

"Eheheh, I'm just meditating," Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "It's a good way to train my mind, you know."

"Hm…" Haku rubbed her cheek with her finger. "So with that hitai-ate… you're a ninja, right? Wow, you're incredible."

Naruto almost cringed. The smile of the girl in front of him… it was so... fake. The last person he saw with that kind of smile was Sai. His experiences with his ex-ROOT friend had shown him how horrible someone's past was if they had that smile on their face.

His stomach churned up. The last time they met, he hadn't been able to ask her about her past. What had Haku suffered in her childhood to make her like this…?

"Heeey, Naruto-kun? Are you all right?"

Naruto snapped back to reality, and realizing Haku was looking at him with a confused expression. He smiled awkwardly. "Ah, nothing… I was just thinking about something…" Then he looked around, trying to find something else to talk about. "Hey, those herbs… Are they for you?"

Haku shook her head. "No, it's for someone who is very important to me."

_Zabuza, _Naruto thought. "Um… your parent, I guess?"

The girl let out another smile. But this time, Naruto could swear it was the most genuine smile he'd ever seen. It was full of happiness. "No, but… in some ways, he's like a father to me. He has raised me since I was a child."

She didn't say anything else, but Naruto knew she was telling the truth. Being an orphaned himself, he understood the happiness of having someone who cared for him, even if it was only for their own benefit.

No wonder why Haku loved Zabuza so much.

Haku stood up, and grabbed her basket. "Oh, I have to go now, Naruto-kun. It's so nice to meet you. I hope someday we will see each other again."

Naruto stared after the retreating back of the girl, murmured.

"Yeah… I hope so too, Haku-chan…"

* * *

"Gato-sama! We've found the profiles of those two ninja Tazuna hired!"

Gato looked at the two sheets of paper on his desk, his eyes narrowed.

Kakashi Hatake… If what the paper said was true, that man would be the infamous Copy Ninja, the man who possessed the power of the Sharingan, and was rumored to have copied over a thousand jutsu. That ninja would give even Zabuza a hard time in a battle, even if the missing-nin was in full condition. And together with him was Kurenai Yuuhi, the Genjutsu Mistress of Konohagakure.

Those two… Together, they might be able to spoil his plan of taking down Tazuna, and crushing the spirit of all citizens in the Land of Waves once and for all. He had to do something…

His eyes caught the bounty on the two ninja's head, and his mouth twisted into an evil grin.

"Spread the rumor that Zabuza Momochi, the Devil of the Hidden Mist, Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja of the Sharingan, and Kurenai Yuuhi, the Genjutsu Mistress of Konohagakure were spotted in the Land of Waves. Make sure that it reaches **that** man."

When the thug was out of the room, Gato started to cackle. No one would get in the way of the CEO of Gato Company.

* * *

Today was Team 8's shift of guarding Tazuna at the construction zone. However, Kurenai had wanted to teach Kiba and Shino some more about cooperating attacks, so Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura had volunteered of taking their shift instead. Sasuke because his training didn't require him to stay in one place, and Sakura because she wanted to escape from the hell training of Kakashi for a day.

But when they reached the bridge, a horrible scene unveiled in their eyes.

All the workers in the construction zone were murdered brutally. Blood covered the half-completed bridge, and corpses littered around.

Mist started filling the air.

"He's here," Kakashi said, and the three genin tensed up, their hands reached their weapon pouches.

From inside the mist, the familiar form of Zabuza emerged.

"Hello Kakashi. We meet again."

* * *

**A/N: Wow. 6000 words? This is the longest chapter I've ever written!**

**Basically, Madara (the real one) was messing with everyone's life. Yeah, even in the afterlife. The bastard.**

**Now everyone knows what will happen when Kakashi finally gets serious in training his genin.**

**And someone's true gender was revealed. **

**Next time in Once More: The battle on the bridge!**

**Please rate and review!**


	9. Chapter 9: Clash on the Big Bridge

**Chapter 9: Clash on the Big Bridge**

"Zabuza," Kakashi mouthed, pulling his hitai-ate up, revealing his Sharingan. "So finally you decided to show yourself? I thought you would know better and hide your ass in some corner after that fight in the forest."

"You're just lucky during that battle that I didn't have my full strength," Zabuza sneered. "But this time you're not that fortunate. Today I'm not alone."

He waved his hand, and the fake hunter-nin from before appeared from inside the thick mist. Kakashi's eyes narrowed.

"So that hunter-nin really was your accomplice…"

"Finally realized it, huh?" Zabuza smirked under his bandage. "But it's too late now. Haku, go."

Without any word, Haku dashed forward, aiming at the bridge builder and the three genin, senbon ready on hand.

And she was stopped by Sasuke, who jumped in her way and delivered a rolling kick to her face. Naturally, with her incredible reflex, Haku easily stopped midrun and blocked the kick.

Zabuza's eyes narrowed. _That brat can follow Haku's speed?_

"Surprise, huh, Zabuza? But your opponent is me, not him."

Zabuza's eyes darted back, right in time for him to block Kakashi's swing of his kunai on his exposed neck. His maniacal grin couldn't be seen as it was hidden under the bandages.

"Coming right at me, eh Kakashi? But when you do that…" he formed a hand seal with his free hand, "…what will happen to the bridge builder and your little genin, I wonder?"

Four water clones of Zabuza rose up from the ground, surrounding Sakura, Hinata and Tazuna. Their swords were raised high, ready to strike down at the seemingly defenseless people.

But Kakashi just chuckled.

"I told you Zabuza, you have underestimated my genin too much."

Four sickening thuds, and the clones collapsed back into water.

Sakura stood firm in front of Tazuna and Hinata. Her right clenched fist was soaking wet.

"Wow," she muttered in shock. "Did I just do what I think I did?"

_She __**punched **__through my water clones?!_

"See that Zabuza? We didn't spend the last week doing nothing like you did."

If it hadn't been for the mask hiding his mouth, people would have seen the triumphant smirk on Kakashi's face. Zabuza gritted his teeth.

"Well, I admit that your genin have developed quite nicely during the last week…"

But suddenly, his mouth morphed into a deadly grin under the bandage.

"…but you are too naïve to think that only you have improved!"

Zabuza jumped away from Kakashi, while weaving through hand seals in a much faster speed than he did before. Both of Kakashi's eyes widened.

_Oh shit!_

He also started going through hand seals, but Zabuza had nearly completed his own.

There's no time to copy Zabuza's jutsu. He had to use another one…

"WATER STYLE: WATER DRAGON!"

"WATER STYLE: WATER SHARK BOMB!"

The two creatures made of water slammed into each other and exploded, making a torrent which poured down everyone's head.

Sasuke's eyes widened when Haku formed a seal with her free hand.

"Everyone! Be caref…"

"Too late! Water Style: Thousand Needles of Death!"

All the water falling down suddenly stopped midair and turned into needles, all aiming right at Tazuna, Hinata and Sakura. And worse, they're everywhere. From behind… In front… At sides…

The deadly projectiles shot at the three people. There was no way for them to dodge.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!"

Moving as fast as he could, Kakashi appeared in front of the three and slammed his hands on the ground. A wall of mud rose around everyone, covering them completely from the needle assault.

_Damn it… Even when separated, they can still assist each other effectively… And with Tazuna here - _he grimaced while stealing a glance at the bridge builder – _we're in a serious disadvantage…_

His train of thought was interrupted when Zabuza's Kubikiribocho sliced through the earth wall.

"This is not the time for you to sit there and daydream, Kakashi!"

_Fuck! _was the only thought of Kakashi when he raised his kunai to block the deadly sword descending on his head. He grunted when the heavy blade clashed with the kunai, letting out a loud 'clang'.

If this continued, everyone would be killed. He must do something…

The plan in his head right now was nothing but insanity… but if there was nothing they could do…

"Sasuke! Code 135!"

Sasuke's eyes widened. In Konohagakure's Shinobi Handbook, Code 135 was the order for luring enemies away from the battlefield. It meant that Kakashi wanted him to separate that hunter-nin and Zabuza.

But that also meant he had to take on that hunter-nin alone.

His mouth twisted into a smirk. This was the chance for him to prove himself against a powerful opponent.

"Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!"

The signature jutsu of the Uchiha clan was launched at Haku at a surprisingly mediocre speed. The hunter-nin's eyes narrowed.

_Is this a joke? _She took a step aside, and the ball of fire flew past her without even touching her sleeve.

But then she startled when Sasuke suddenly appeared right in front of her, his fist cocked back.

_So fast!_

Haku raised her hand to block the incoming punch, but a kick immediately followed, sending her tumbling. She staggered back, but the boy didn't stop his assault there. Haku was, by no means, bad at taijutsu, but she still found that she was being pushed further and further away from Zabuza.

_So their aim was to separate us… _Haku narrowed her eyes under her mask. She pulled out a senbon from her sleeve while blocking another kick from Sasuke. "It seems I have to finish you fast…"

"Just try," Sasuke smirked. "From now on, you will be the one who has to run from my attacks."

* * *

Naruto yawned and opened his eyes.

Bright, warm sunlight sneaked into the room through the cracks on the windows. It was a nice morning.

He winced as pain wracked through his head.

'_Ugh… my head hurts… What happened?'_

'_**Do you even need to ask, onii-chan?' **_the voice of Saikyo echoed through his mind. _**'You exhausted your own chakra last night to the very last drop! Do you know how dangerous that was? If it hadn't been for us inside you, you would have died!"**_

The slug's voice was full of irritation. Never before had Naruto heard her speaking in a tone like that. It's just like the voice of an angry mother when her child did something bad. Naruto chuckled.

'_Eh, don't worry Saikyo-chan. I do that all the time, you know, and I still live! How bad can it be?' _Then he changed the topic, ignoring the slug whose cheeks seemed to be puffing out angrily. _'Say, where did everyone go? The house seems to be awfully quiet.'_

'_**It's nine already, idiot,' **_Shukaku deadpanned. _**'Everyone has already gone for training and guarding the old man at the bridge. The only ones home right now are the lady and that Inari brat.'**_

A feeling of dread suddenly swept through Naruto's stomach. _What happened? It feels just like I've forgotten something very important…_

Then he heard a crash in the kitchen below.

* * *

Inari screamed vengeance, charged at the two rogue swordsmen head first, and got replaced by a log, which was cut into pieces.

Naruto, carrying the boy by his waist, grinned foxily.

"You know, being a hero doesn't mean you have to rush in recklessly like that."

Next to his feet, Tsunami was lying, still unconscious but wasn't harmed in anyway. Inari's eyes widened in surprise and relief.

"N-Naruto…"

"So you're one of those losers called ninja that old bag hired, huh?" one of the thugs smirked. "Taking you back with us surely will give us some pretty bonus." He took a step forward, and drew his sword.

But Naruto just waved his hand. "Look behind you first."

The two looked behind, only to see two planks smashed hard at their faces. They slumped down, fainted.

"Take that, idiots." Naruto and his two clones grinned cheekily.

Loud footsteps rose from behind him. He turned back, and saw Kurenai, Shino and Kiba running towards him. The red-eyed jonin only needed a glance to understand what had just happened. She looked at Naruto.

"They're from Gato's, right? If they dare to attack a civilian house like this place, it must be for hostages. It seems Tazuna-san is also in danger right now."

"Then let's go help Kakashi-sensei and the other!" Kiba pumped his fist into the air. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Oh, and Inari," Naruto remembered. "Sorry about that slap earlier. You really are strong! I'm proud of you!" He gave the boy a thumb-up. "We're going to the bridge to help your grandpa. Can we count on you here?"

"Of course, Naruto-niichan!" Inari said with a grin full of tears. Naruto turned back to everyone.

"All right," he muttered. "It's hero time."

* * *

Ice Style: Demonic Crystal Ice Mirrors. The ultimate technique of Haku. It creates a dome of mirrors which traps her enemy inside, and which Haku can move freely between so fast normal eyes cannot hope to catch a glimpse. Combining it with her incredible skill in senbon throwing, almost no enemy can escape death when facing her.

And now, Sasuke Uchiha was being trapped inside the dome of mirrors.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed when the dome of ice formed at the other side of the half-built bridge. _What is that jutsu…?_

"Worried about your student, eh Kakashi?" The mocking voice of Zabuza rose as if the man himself had read Kakashi's mind. "You should be, because no one will ever get out of Haku's jutsu alive."

Kakashi's spine froze. _What?_

"Furthermore…" The smirk of Zabuza widened even more under the bandages, "…I think you should save that worrying for your _other _students."

Realizing what Zabuza had just said, Kakashi yelled. "Sakura! Hinata! Stay alert, there might be…"

"Too late."

From behind the two girls and the bridge builder, the Demon Brothers descended down on their heads, their claws raised high.

* * *

"Damn it."

Naruto turned to the red-eyed kunoichi who had just cursed. "What's wrong, Kurenai-sensei?"

"I just remembered that there has been no news of the Demon Brothers since we defeated them on the way to Waves," Kurenai muttered. "If they are able to join Zabuza, I really cannot say what will happen."

Naruto's heart jumped. In his timeline, Kakashi defeated those two in one hit, and they hadn't been heard again since then. But what if they showed up again this time…?

'_**I don't understand why you're so scared,' **_he heard Isobu snorting. _**'During my time in Kirigakure, I hadn't even heard of them. With those cannon fodders, how bad can it be?'**_

'_**Speaking of Kirigakure,' **_Kurama added, _**'you always say that you will save Haku and Zabuza, but do you have any plan of how to do that?'**_

'_Nope!' _

The thought of Naruto was too cheerful to be a denial. Kurama facepalmed.

'_**Why do I always have idiots as my jinchuriki…?'**_

'_Hey, I'm not that bad!'_

'_**Nah, don't worry. They'll become your friends after you beat their asses off. Maybe some full power chakra beams of total destruction will help.' **_Chomei waved him off.

Everyone stared at the beetle.

'_**What? That's how magical girls do when they want to befriend someone!'**_

Naruto silently made a vow to never let Chomei and his children in the future go anywhere near manga or anime when they're together.

* * *

It turned out that Isobu was too optimistic.

The Demon Brothers, though not being as powerful as jonin like Kakashi or Kurenai, were still at chuunin level. Cannon fodders or not, they're still forces that would give genin a hard time fighting.

And facing them right now was Hinata, who was a shy girl who didn't like fighting, and Sakura, a still-fangirl who had just started training seriously for about a week.

Obviously, that didn't go so well.

Had it not been for Hinata's Byakugan, which has the ablility to see everything around their user, the two girls and the bridge builder would have been killed.

Tazuna being there put them in another severe disadvantage. Being a mere civilian, standing in the middle of a ninja battle means putting yourself in danger of being killed or maimed brutally. The fact that he was the reason for that ninja battle didn't help, either.

Therefore, what seemed to be the battle between the two missing-nins and the two genin kunoichi was only the two kunoichi jumping and rolling and running around, trying desperately to avoid the ruthless assault coming from the huge gauntlets of the two masked ninja while holding the bridge builder out of their reach.

Some kind of gross purple liquid was dripping menacingly from the claws onto the ground. Whatever it was, Sakura wouldn't want to touch it. Or let it touch her.

She jumped back, pushing Tazuna out of the way when the deadly poisonous claw aimed right at the bridge builder's face again.

_I'm scared… _Sakura thought, her legs trembled. _I'm not as good as Naruto or Sasuke-kun… Am I gonna be killed here?_

She could feel fear starting creeping into her spine. It's not like she couldn't fight, but all the battles before were just normal sparring between classmates or teammates.

She had never had a real fight in her life. Her fists had power, but that's all they had. All the training from Kakashi only helped her increase the strength of her body, not her battle experience. And right now, she was facing an enemy with a weapon designed to kill.

_What am I going to do now…?_

Luckily for her, she didn't have to do anything.

* * *

"What's the matter little girl?" one of the missing-nins taunted while swiping at Hinata's face. "Too scared to even fight back a little?"

Yes, Hinata was scared. **Of course **she was scared. This was the first time she had to face an enemy alone. The last time, she had had Kurenai-sensei and her friends Kiba and Shino next to her, always ready to back her up. Right now, Sakura had her own enemy to deal with, and behind her was a trembling bridge builder she had to protect with her life.

This time, she was all alone. No one was here to help her. Even if there was someone… she would be dead before they arrived.

"Hinata!"

The girl startled when Kakashi's voice reached her ears.

"You are not weak!" The Sharingan master yelled while struggling against Zabuza's huge sword. "You just don't want to fight because you don't like hurting people! But if you continue holding back, someday you won't be able to even protect the ones you love!"

Hinata's eyes widened. _The ones I love…_

00000

_(Flashback)_

_Hinata let out a deep sigh after finishing her basic kata for Juuken. She relaxed her body, and sat down on a log nearby. _

_The training sessions of Kakashi during the week were nothing but brutality. The jonin had forced them to push through their limits, and although it hurt a lot, their bodies all became stronger, faster and more flexible than before. _

_However, whenever it came to sparring, Hinata was still the worst. Her attacks, without applying chakra, were just harmless slaps. She just couldn't steel her heart enough to use Juuken on another person, let alone on her friends when they trained. Her mind and her soul just weren't ready for hurting people._

_Today, Kakashi-sensei had told her that she could take a rest. She was even excused from guarding duty at the construction zone. Never before during the week had the jonin allowed anyone to rest like that._

_She thought of everything that happened. She thought of how useless she was during the fight with Zabuza in the forest. Could it be that... because of that, Kakashi-sensei didn't want her to fight any more? Could it be that… she was too weak… she was not material of kunoichi at all… just like everyone said…?_

_Unable to hold herself together any more, Hinata burrowed her face on her hands, and started crying._

"_Hinata-chan?"_

_The girl almost jumped when Naruto's voice rose right next to her ear._

"_Na-Naruto-kun!" she squeaked, wiping her eyes quickly with her sleeve, but the damage was already done; the blond stared at her tearful face and frowned._

"_What happened Hinata-chan? Why are you crying? Did someone hurt you?"_

"_No… no… it's… it's just… it's nothing…" She tried to scurry away from the boy, but all her efforts were in vain; Naruto grabbed her arms and pulled forcefully so that they were facing each other._

"_Hinata-chan, you cannot lie to me. It's clear to me that you're sad about something. Please tell me; I'll help you if I can. I don't want to see you crying like this." _

_Blue stared into white, and for a second, Hinata felt like something broke inside her. She broke into tears again; warm, salty drops drenched her coat. _

"_I… I can't do it!" she said between sobs. "I cannot fight at all! Whenever I try to do something good, I end up being everyone's nuisance! Everyone was right! I'm just too weak! I don't deserve to be a ninja! I… I…"_

_Too busy crying, she didn't notice she had slumped onto Naruto's chest, wetting his shirt in process. She could hear someone called her name, "Hinata-chan… Hinata-chan…" but she didn't care. After letting out all her frustration, pain and despair, she thought the world was going to collapse around her._

"_HINATA HYUUGA YOU ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW!"_

_Hinata was so shocked she stopped crying. _

"_N-Naruto-kun…?"_

"_Hinata," Naruto said, and Hinata realized he didn't use the usual honorific. "I don't believe you are weak. I remember during the academy, you're one of the best girls in our class! How could you say you're weak?"_

"_But I…"_

_Naruto didn't let her finish the sentence. "Hinata, I know you don't like hurting people, but in the future, there will be some times you have to. When you're alone and your comrades are all disabled, who will protect them if you stubbornly refuse to fight like that?"_

_Then he chuckled. "Besides, fighting isn't always bad. I used to be like you, but then I realized that some times I have to fight to protect the people I love. I remember when I first used the Shadow Clone Jutsu to protect Iruka-sensei from Mizuki… It makes me feel more powerful than ever! So there, don't hesitate when you have to fight to protect someone! Especially if they're good people who are in need of your help!"_

_Hinata was stunned. Never before had she considered that possibility._

_Or had she? Could it be that she __**had **__thought about it, but dismissed it because it contradicted her ideal? _

_Since the Kumogakure incident, she had despited fighting; she thought that because her father fought and killed the Kumogakure shinobi, her uncle Hizashi had to die. And since then, she had become scared of everything. The idea that hurting and killing people was bad was planted firm into her head, and made her a shy girl who never wanted to fight others. She stubbornly thought that if she fought, it would only lead to other people's suffering._

_And Hinata suddenly felt ashamed. Naruto-kun, the boy she admired and loved, the one who had suffered from abuses during his childhood, in which she observed but couldn't do anything to help, had always thought of fighting to protect others, while she, a girl born into the mighty Hyuuga clan, had refused to fight only to run away from her past. _

"_Naruto-kun…"_

_(End Flashback)_

00000

"No! I will not run away any more!"

A palm full of chakra slammed at Meizu's stomach, and suddenly he felt a sharp pain, as if a knife had just been shoved into his navel. He gasped, stumbling back.

"What the…?"

"I will not let you harm Tazuna-san, or Sakura-san! You're within my divination!"

Meizu lifted his head, and finally saw what he couldn't see earlier behind the thick mist screen.

A pair of pure white eyes.

"No… You're… Hyuuga…"

"Two palms!"

Fingers poked his shoulders, and Meizu felt his arms becoming numb.

"Four palms!"

Finger poked him again, and now his legs couldn't move. It's just like all his energy was sealed up completely in those limbs.

"Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Eight Trigrams… Thirty-two Palms!"

Meizu's eyes rolled back into his head, and he slumped on the ground, fainted. Standing over his body was Hinata, whose white eyes were full of power and determination.

_Thank you Naruto-kun… I finally understand what you said… We will become strong when we use our powers to protect others…_

"You bitch! What have you done to my brother?!" Gozu, who was fighting Sakura, howled like a wounded animal. He abandoned his opponent and jumped at Hinata, who had just deactivated her Byakugan, making her unable to see him advancing towards her from behind.

"Die!"

"FANG OVER FANG!"

From nowhere, the combination jutsu of Kiba and Akamaru slammed at Gozu, sending him flying away. He struggled to stand up, but his eyes widened, and he collapsed into another heap on the ground.

Kurenai smiled after successfully putting the missing-nin into a blissful sleep with a genjutsu.

"Hinata, you did great. I'm very proud of you."

* * *

Kakashi grimaced. He didn't have to move anywhere to see that Sasuke was screwed horribly.

Since the dome of ice was erected, Sasuke had been overpowered completely. Not only he couldn't even touch Haku any more, he also became the free dummy for the fake hunter-nin to practice throwing senbon. It was only through pure luck, or something Kakashi didn't know about, that Sasuke didn't become a human-shaped pin cushion.

Luckily for him, Kurenai and her team had arrived and disposed of the blasted Demon Brothers quickly. Kakashi let out a sigh in relief. Now the bridge builder had protection.

"Kurenai! You and your team, lead Tazuna-san out of here, now! I will hold Zabuza off!"

Kurenai, as a veteran jonin, didn't need to be asked twice. Leaving civilians in the middle of a ninja battle is never a good idea, especially when that civilian is your own client. She nodded at her team, and the four ninja together with Tazuna ran back the trail they arrived from, away from the battlefield.

Now there was only the problem with Sasuke…

He jumped away from another deadly slash of Zabuza, and threw a kunai at the ice dome. The knife whizzed through the air, aiming at the mirror containing the image of the masked hunter-nin…

…only to be caught easily by the ninja who emerged from the mirror.

_Damn it…_

And he felt a blur of orange flew past him.

The hunter-nin was knocked out of the mirror with a very hard kick to the face. And Naruto landed on the bridge with a loud "thud".

"Hello guys. What did I miss?"

* * *

'_**Nice entrance there, dude.' **_Gyuuki duly noted.

'_I know.' _Naruto answered with a smug grin. He turned to Sasuke, who was now slumping inside the mirror dome.

'_**Ouch. That must have hurt,' **_Goku winced when he saw the boy's body, now looking like a porcupine. _**'Human's body wasn't supposed to look like that.'**_

"Hey teme!" Naruto called into the dome. "Why didn't you just, like, Body Flicker out of that dome instead of just standing there to take all those needles?"

Sasuke yelled out. "You think I hadn't thought of that?"

"Because he cannot."

A kick to the ribs sent Naruto flying into the dome.

"Ow!" Naruto screamed when he landed face first inside the ice dome. "What's the big idea, hitting me when I was talking?"

"And why do you think he won't, idiot?" Sasuke gritted his teeth. "Look out!"

A senbon flew past them, effectively shutting both boys up when Sasuke frantically pushed Naruto away.

"Inside my Crystal Ice Mirror, I am the fastest," Haku said, pulling out another senbon from her sleeve. "No movement of yours can escape my eyes, and Body Flicker won't help you escape my senbon."

Naruto blinked. "You just… explained your jutsu to us. I don't get it. Why do powerful ninja always have to explain their jutsu to enemies?"

Haku shrugged inside her mirror.

"Enough with this!" Sasuke roared. "If these mirrors is what give you advantages, then all we have to do is destroying them!"

He went through hand seals. "Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!"

The ball of fire blasted from his mouth, and did nothing to the mirrors. "Damn it!"

"My mirrors cannot be melted by normal fire alone. Your efforts were all in vain."

And the two boys were skewered with a rain of senbon. Again.

It had been too long since the last time Naruto experienced this for him to remember how **hurt **this was.

"Ow."

'_**That was the greatest understatement of the year,' **_Shukaku flatly noted.

'_Oh come on! That's the only thing you could say, Shukaku-chan?' _Naruto yelled in his mind._ 'You could have helped me with something, like that auto protection thing you gave Gaara!'_

'_**Don't 'Shukaku-chan' me!' **_The raccoon snapped. _**'And that protection power is of Gaara's mother, not mine, so don't get your hope up.'**_

_Okay Naruto, don't panic… What did I do the last time I fought her…?_

The last time, he blasted everything away with Kurama's chakra.

_No, that won't work. That's just too overkill, I might end up blowing the whole bridge up. I have to try something else…_

'_**Wind.'**_

Naruto was sure he had just heard Matatabi muttering.

'_Huh?'_

'_**Sasuke has fire jutsu. Use your wind jutsu to boost the fire up; it will be able to melt the ice mirrors.'**_

Naruto's eyes widened. He had completely forgotten of collaboration jutsu.

He didn't have access to his Rasenshuriken right now, but Kakashi-sensei had just taught him a wind jutsu two days ago. He still hadn't perfected it completely, but it would be enough.

"Hey Sasuke, I got a plan. Try your fire jutsu again."

"Huh?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes. He had just tried it and it didn't work, then why…?

Then he saw Naruto performing hand seals, and understood immediately. He grinned, and started to weave through his own seals.

"Together, yeah?" Naruto grinned back. Sasuke nodded.

The two sets of hand seals were completed at the same time.

"FIRE STYLE: FIRE BALL JUTSU!"

"WIND STYLE: GREAT BREAKTHROUGH!"

And the two jutsu combined did what one alone had not. Haku had to jump out of the mirror she was standing in right before the inferno rushed through it and vaporized half of the ice dome.

_What… what power…?_

"ORYAAAAAAAAA!"

Haku's eyes widened under her mask when the figure of Naruto bursted right through the flame. His right knuckle slammed at Haku's mask, shattering it, revealing her beautiful face.

_I'm sorry Zabuza-sama… I have failed you…_

Everything around her went dark.

* * *

"Why are you doing this?"

The question of Kakashi almost caught Zabuza off guard.

"I really don't understand you, Zabuza," the cyclops continued. "You're the leader of the riot against the Fourth Mizukage one year ago, right? Why would a ninja who did such an honorable thing stoop so low to work with a scum like Gato?"

"I don't have to explain my way of working to you." Zabuza snarled.

"You are a fool, Zabuza," Kakashi stated while deflecting another slash of the swordsman. "After your failure at assassinating Yagura, you left Kirigakure, left all your comrades to run away alone. As far as I know, right now they're still fighting, even without your help. Do you think running away like that will help you bring freedom to Kirigakure? And now you affiliate yourself with a scum like Gato… That's just too sad. Do you really think that Gato will help you after you kill Tazuna for him?"

Killing intent suddenly spiked around Kakashi.

"Shut up! I will not listen to you any more!"

Kakashi had to dodge and block frantically when his surrounding was suddenly bombarded with a furious barrage of slashes.

_Sorry Naruto… _Kakashi thought while pulling out a scroll from his pocket. _It seems I failed to help you convince Zabuza… But what must be done has to be done._

* * *

Naruto stood triumphantly over Haku's body. His own body was riddled with senbon wounds, but there was nothing his healing factor couldn't fix.

Behind him, Sasuke was plucking the senbon off his body.

"You shouldn't do that. You might bleed to death." Naruto noted.

Sasuke looked at him and scowled. "This was nothing."

Then Naruto noticed Sasuke's eyes. "Oh, so you got your Sharingan, huh?"

Sasuke smirked. "Yeah. It must have activated during the battle. Now I'm not gonna lose to you any more."

Naruto grinned back. "Oh. I'm waiting for our next spar."

Then he heard the sound of a thousand birds chirping at the other side of the bridge. His eyes widened.

_Oh no! Kakashi-sensei is going to kill Zabuza!_

Everything flew away from his head immediately. Kakashi-sensei had promised him that he would try to convince Zabuza…

"Kakashi-sensei! Stop!" He screamed, but his voice was unheard. The jonin was running towards Zabuza full speed; his right fist was full of blue crackling electricity. Five more steps and Zabuza's heart would be pierced.

There was no time. Normal Body Flicker wouldn't help him reach them in time. He had to do it.

'_Kurama! Please lend me your chakra!'_

'_**Wait! What are you trying to do?' **_Kurama yelled when her chakra was pulled on rather forcefully, and started to form into Naruto's familiar golden Chakra Shroud.

Three more steps.

With a kick to the ground, Naruto flew towards the fighting ninja in a yellow flash, sending a cloud of dust on Sasuke's face, leaving him coughing hysterically. He had to reach them before Kakashi's Raikiri connected.

Two.

He wasn't gonna make it… He could arrive in time, but there's no time to stop Kakashi's hand.

One.

There was only one way…

He jumped into the way of Kakashi in front of Zabuza, and the whole lightning jutsu was shoved right into his own chest.

* * *

Everyone was utterly shocked.

Yes, everyone. Sasuke. Sakura. Kakashi. The Tailed Beasts. Even Zabuza.

Kakashi was the first one snapping out of his stupor.

"Naruto!" he screamed, hastily pulling his hand out of his student's chest, but before he could do anything else for the boy, the blade of Zabuza had been swung at his neck, and obviously, it was going to cut through Naruto's body, too.

And Kakashi saw red.

CLANG!

The giant blade was stopped dead on its track by the metal plate on Kakashi's glove. His eyes were both locked at Zabuza's face with a glare full of hatred.

A flick of his arm, and Kubikiribocho was yanked out of Zabuza's hand. The blade flew into the sky, spun wildly and stabbed into the bridge with a loud "thud".

Kakashi gently put Naruto down on the hard, cold concrete surface, and stood up, grasped the handle of the giant blade and snarled in a cold voice.

"I gave you a chance to back down Zabuza, and you ruined it. Now prepare to face the consequences."

Never before had Zabuza felt such a fear. Even before when he had faced Yagura, the Sanbi jinchuriki couldn't even compare to this ridiculous murderous intent from Kakashi right now. He tried to move, but his limbs felt like they had petrified.

"Kakashi-sensei… Don't do it…"

The voice of Naruto coming from behind him made Kakashi stop. He turned back, and saw the boy standing up shakily. The wound in his chest was closing up quickly, and in two seconds, there was no trace of it left except a gaping hole in his shirt.

"Why…?"

That was the only word Zabuza could choke out. Naruto smiled sadly.

"Because I believe you are not a bad person, Zabuza-san. Kakashi-sensei told me your story… A person who risks his life to free his village from a tyrant cannot be a bad person. Besides, I have only met Haku-chan twice, but she told me that she had a precious person whom she considered her father. That was you, right Zabuza-san? I cannot let her last precious person be killed right in front of me. But hell, I think if she was awake, she would have done the same thing as me."

Zabuza's eyes widened. The girl he had rescued from a devastated bloodline family with the intent to train into a weapon… She thought of him so highly… And yet, he was here, always thought of her as a tool, a weapon for him to use…

He thought of everything Haku had done for him before. _No one _in his life had ever given him such a treatment.

The image of Haku standing in front of him, her bloody chest having a gaping hole and an arm piercing through, suddenly flashed through his mind. What the boy said was true. If Haku was awake, that would be the thing she would do.

He hung his head in shame. A drop of tear rolled down his cheek.

Since he first became a shinobi, he had been taught that shinobi were simply tools for other to use. They didn't have feelings such as love or regret. They simply were killing machines, created to work for people with enough money to pay them.

But right now… why was he shedding tears? Did that mean the Devil of the Hidden Mist still had feelings as a human?

More than ever, Zabuza wanted everything to stop.

"I surrender. Do anything you want."

And with that, the battle in the bridge was finished. Naruto let out a sigh of relief.

'_**Right now I really want to hit you for pulling such a stunt with your own body,' **_Kurama commented dryly, _**'but it seems you did a good job there, Naruto.'**_

That was an extravagant praise coming from the Nine-Tailed Vixen.

Kakashi looked at the blonde boy. A feeling of pride started blooming in his stomach.

_Naruto… You really are the son of Minato-sensei…_

He reached his headband, pulled it down to cover his Sharingan up. His work was done.

"Fire Style: Searing Migraine."

And suddenly, the whole bridge was lit up with fire.

* * *

**A/N: Whew! Chapter 9 was finally here!**

**I'm truly sorry for the delay. The truth is, I didn't expect this chapter to take this long to write. I had too much work to do during the last two weeks, and the fighting scenes were somehow harder to illustrate in this chapter to me.**

**As usual, please review!**


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